Design plans for the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute were reviewed and largely approved at Monday's Board of Visitors' Building and Grounds Committee meeting after months of joint development by multiple agencies.
Tech and Carilion Health System have worked together to model the vision and design of the building, hiring architecture firm HSMM AECOM to develop an innovative structure suitable for the dual residency of the medical school and research institute.
All parties involved have enjoyed creating and designing an entirely new building with a modern structure, up-to-date amenities and technological advancements.
"It's really fun," said Dr. Cynda Ann Johnson, recently appointed Dean of the VTC School of Medicine. "It's been great to not have to take an already existing building and make it work."
Plans presented at the meeting showed the location of the building, which will be just south of downtown Roanoke, across the street from the Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. The campus will be a part of the new Riverside Center, a development that consists of a new medical office building, a parking garage, and a Carilion clinic currently under construction.
The VTC building itself will be approximately 150,000 square feet in size, with two-thirds of that space used for the research institute and one-third for the medical school. The exterior of the building will be predominantly brick, with a three-story glass atrium connecting the two institutions.
"One reason for separating the two is that the research institute is going to have some requirements structurally and infrastructure-wise that you're probably not going to have in the medical school," said Eric Earnhart, spokesman for Carilion.
In that same vein, designs for each institution required both similar and unique focuses.
Carilion officials and VTC administrators worked with HSMM to create a layout for the medical school that best fits its predicted needs. The first of three floors will include a lecture hall and medical library, as well as administrative, dining, and student services. The second will include another large lecture hall and other student-focused rooms, such as study lounges. The third story will be the primary instructional area, with mock exam rooms, team rooms, and anatomy labs.
The research institute was developed in part by hiring Jacobs Consultancy, a premiere lab design firm that has designed at least 40 different biomedical research labs.
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