Despite a rumored agenda for the medical school’s expansion, concrete plans for a Feinberg School of Medicine biomedical research facility are “a few years in the works and nothing new,” said Eugene Sunshine, Northwestern senior vice president for business and finance.
“This is a Feinberg School of Medicine project which we have been planning and raising money for some time,” Sunshine said. “But there is no specific time frame worked out for its construction as of now.”
The expansion would help keep NU up to date, said Muthu Vaduganathan, a first-year Feinberg graduate student.
“It’s an excellent idea because it keeps research grounded in basic science and allows more funding and space for both students and faculty,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity.”
The construction is primarily a Feinberg initiative which will receive a Northwestern Memorial HealthCare financial contribution, Sunshine said. How much Northwestern Memorial HealthCare will offer remains unknown, he added.
A Crain’s Chicago Business article Monday highlighted Northwestern Memorial’s unique financial fortitude to be able to support the expansion at a time of an economic downturn.
Representatives for both university relations and Feinberg declined to comment in response to the Crain’s article or the status of the expansion plans. A spokesperson for Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Feinberg’s clinical affiliate and a subsidiary of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, was not able to offer comment Tuesday.
Fundraising for the new building is still in progress, Sunshine said. The final price tag will be around $200 million, he said. Sunshine said he could not comment on when fundraising was targeted for completion.
The new medical research tower was included as a long-term addition in the original construction plans for the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center, at 303 E. Superior St., Sunshine said.
“We designed Lurie so that right next to it could be another tower that would provide more research space,” Sunshine said. Plans for the building right now include “accommodating more of the researchers who will be moving from the Children’s Memorial Hospital,” he said.
Lurie, which was completed in 2005, is home to research on cancer, diabetes and neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. NU currently ranks 19th in research among American medical schools, according to U.S. News and World Report.
The Crain’s article indicated a secondary project is in the works – an office building at 240 E. Ontario St. The office building would be an NU Memorial project whose only impact on Feinberg will be “support of clinical activity for the academic medical center,” Sunshine said.
The expansion would be a step toward realizing Feinberg’s strategic vision of “The Great Academic Medical Center,” a term which came out of a joint committee between Feinberg, NU Memorial Hospital and the NU Medical Faculty Foundation and describes the strategic expansion plan for the medical school, Sunshine said.
“The Great Academic Medical Center is a number of objectives between the hospital and the university, one of which is building research space,” Sunshine said. “This is one step in that direction certainly, but we aren’t there yet.”
