The University at Buffalo's Jacobs School of Medicine has moved forward in building a new location in the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
Tuesday morning, school officials gathered alongside Mayor Byron Brown, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul for the topping off ceremony. During the ceremony, one of the building's final beams was lifted to the top of the building.
The emerging facility is built out of 7,459 steel beams and 7,000 tons of steel. It is eight stories and 628,000-square feet. UB President Satish Tripathi remarked that, "We started moving toward this day back in December 2011 when Governor Cuomo approved NYSUNY 2020."
"The vision that we shared then was to bring the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences downtown to partner with hospitals and research facilities on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus."'
The new location is expected to bring an addition 2,000 people to downtown Buffalo. Officials say this will help boost downtown's housing development, stored and research opportunities.
An additional 100 physician-scientists will be added to UB's new Medical Campus building. The expansion will also increase the medical school class size from 144 to 180.
The new medical school building is scheduled to be complete in 2017. Its price tag is $375 million.
