New College of Medicine Interdisciplinary Building to Benefit the University Community and the People of Tennessee

On April 16, the Tennessee General Assembly approved the funding of $311 million for the construction of a new $350 million College of Medicine Interdisciplinary Building to be built on the Memphis campus.

Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer Raaj Kurapati and College of Medicine Executive Dean Mike Hocker, MD, held an interactive town hall Monday, April 27, for the UT Health Sciences community to celebrate the exciting development and talk about the university's capital plans across Tennessee.

The new building "will change lives in Tennessee forever," Dr. Hocker said.

The largest state-funded capital project for higher education in the history of Tennessee, the building will impact not only the campus footprint in Memphis but will also serve as catalyst to improve the university's infrastructure and operations throughout the state.

"It's a testament to the work that you folks do," Kurapati told the audience in the O.D. Larry Dining Hall in the Student-Alumni Center in Memphis and those watching via Zoom statewide. "It's a testament to the quality of students we have the privilege of educating and training, and it's a testament to what we're going to be doing for the future health care workforce needs of this state."

Kurapati described the extensive planning for the building. The planning began with an assessment of the most-pressing needs across the institution through a space utilization study and a comprehensive review of the current Campus Master Plan, with the aim of developing a revised Capital Master Plan for UT Health Sciences' statewide footprint. The process included input from faculty, staff, and students on all UT Health Sciences campuses.

"We met with our colleagues in each of the campuses to get an appreciation of what we have there now, what are the growth opportunities, and how should that inform our capital master planning strategy for all," Kurapati said. He said the development of the updated master plan is ongoing.

"It's a testament to the quality of students we have the privilege of educating and training, and it's a testament to what we're going to be doing for the future health care workforce needs of this state."

"We look at this as an opportunity for us to truly modernize our facilities and provide up-to-date learning spaces for all our learners, current and future," Kurapati said. "We also wanted to make sure that we thought about our community."

"This was a tremendous amount of work to get us here," Dr. Hocker said. He thanked Kurapati, Chancellor Peter Buckley, MD, and David Mills, director of Government Relations for UT Health Sciences. "I want to tell you how important this is," he said. "It's not just for Memphis."

The 300,000-square-foot building will be "student focused," with most of the building dedicated to classroom space, Dr. Hocker said.

"They're going to have the prime real estate, because that's who we're here for," he said.

The building will be located on Madison Avenue in the middle of campus between the College of Pharmacy Building at 881 Madison Ave. and the corner of Madison Avenue and Pauline Street, where the recently demolished Holiday Inn building stood.

The university has begun a philanthropic campaign to raise $50 million to support the project, including $39 million toward the costs of the building and additional funds for specialized equipment and programmatic needs.

The building will allow room to expand the medicine class from 175 to 250 per cohort. There will also be space for the Physician Assistant Program to grow from 30 to 60 students a year.

"By 2030, we'll have a shortage of 6,000 physicians in the state," Dr. Hocker said. "As the state's primary medical school and largest public university, we have got to fill that pipeline."

New technology will facilitate interdisciplinary training. Specialty simulation space will allow for collaborative disaster and emergency response training, as well as other scenarios that demand health care providers from different fields to work together. The building will also provide a hub for telehealth training in multiple fields.

State-of-the-art technology will support an increase in the use of online educational opportunities for the College of Medicine and other colleges and allow for eventual increases in the number of academic certificate programs and enrollment in those programs. Also, a central space will be included for faculty from all colleges to congregate and work together.

A cloister will offer a central greenspace for reflection and time away from studies. Additionally, the building was designed to fit in with the varied architecture on the Memphis campus and reflect the shapes of the rivers and bridges of the city that surrounds it.

Kurapati said the goal is to finish the planning and design work and bring the building to the State Building Commission for approval in late summer, with an aim to commence construction later this year. Substantial completion is anticipated in 2029.