Ayers Saint Gross has shared renderings of its new design in Charlotte, NC. Phase 1, which is set to open in 2025, includes two new buildings totaling 685,000 square feet, two parking garages with 1,100 parking spaces, and a central plaza. The project is part of The Pearl; a planned innovation district that will total three million square feet at its full buildout, and is intended to aid the Wake Forest School of Medicine’s expansion and become a new civic hub for Charlotte.

Located at the edge of Uptown, the program includes the anchoring 14-story, 393,000-square-foot Howard Levine Center for Education building and a neighboring smaller ten-story, 330,000-square-foot research facility, 905 Pearl Park Way, that is attracting major health science innovators, developed through the partnership between Atrium Health and Wexford Science & Technology. CO Architects and Neighboring Concepts are collaborators on the project.

The Howard R. Levine Center for Education includes a 250-seat feature conference area along with a central gathering and presentation spaced called “The Forum.” 

Also of note is the tiered public plaza portion of the development, which the firms say is made sensitive to its site’s history as a Historically Black district known as Brooklyn that was mostly erased by early 20th-century development.