Healthcare

UMass to Build New Research Facility

UMass Medical School’s education and research building / Renderings courtesy of ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge and ZGF

Boston – Shawmut Design and Construction, a national construction management firm, announced that it has been selected to build the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s new education and research building, in partnership with architecture firms ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge and ZGF, as well as the UMass Building Authority.

The nine-story, 350,000sf biomedical research and education facility will support laboratory research growth and acceleration into new therapeutics for some of the most challenging diseases.

The complex will feature program space for a projected 77 principal investigators; an FDA-compliant manufacturing facility for clinical trial therapeutics; research space, including wet labs, benches, exhaust hood alcoves, linear equipment rooms, and environmental areas; administrative offices; collaboration spaces; and conference rooms.

Designed to meet ambitious sustainability goals, including targeting LEED Gold certification with aspirations to net zero energy use, the building’s architecture integrates high-performance systems with a double-skin facade and geothermal heat pumps. The interior design emphasizes natural daylighting and transparency, active circulation, and generous social and interaction spaces to foster a productive, healthy environment for discovery and innovation.

Slated to open in 2023, the new building will connect the Lazare Research Building and the Albert Sherman Center on the second level through a new system of sky bridges while also completing the west face of the campus green. Once open, the complex will house the Horae Gene Therapy Center; departments of neurological surgery, neurology, and neurobiology; the program in molecular medicine; and a new program in human genetics and evolutionary biology; among others.