Building A Healthier Future Through Collaboration

This is not just a hospital, not just a research laboratory, not just a learning center – it is a Place of Discovery … an example of how architecture can activate innovation.

The new 10-story, $291 million urban structure creates a unique typology, co-locating three institutions – the University at Buffalo Medical School, Kaleida Health and Jacobs Research Institute. Before the start of the project each entity had expected to occupy its own building on different sites, but our Lead Designer Mehrdad Yazdani challenged their leadership to think about their operations in a new way and brought them together in a single building, intermingling translational research, education, business, and clinical care. Integrating three clients and four evolving disciplines into one building necessitated an adaptable building. Isolating the building core to one side of the floor plate enhanced flexibility by creating unfettered real estate. Program elements common to each client were collocated, encouraging collaboration and the sharing of ideas among physicians, scientists, and students. To support the goal of being a “100 year building,” the structure utilizes a planning module that we call the “Universal Grid” – a structural chassis that was tested for every conceivable research, teaching, office and patient care function, facilitating future functional change. In the eight years since it opened, the client has found that the intersection of functional elements and collaboration spaces continue to foster synergistic thinking among the three institutions housed in the building.