MSB Rehabilitation Project Entering Ambitious Phase

The Medical Sciences Building (MSB) Rehabilitation Project is about to begin its most ambitious phase since construction of the CARE/Crawley Building began in July 2004.

Phase IV, which involves the south half of the MSB, is scheduled to begin move-out of some current occupants in mid-September, with move-outs continuing through May 2013. Rehabilitation work is scheduled to begin June 1, 2013.

Levels 3-7 are affected in the west half of the Phase IV area; Levels E-7 are affected in the east half. Work is scheduled for completion in December 2014, with move-in scheduled for 2015. Once that move-in is complete by mid-2015, the project will be finished after more than 10 years of work. It is progressing on schedule, says Dennis Funke, project manager in the Office of Planning, Design and Construction.

At the same time occupants are moving out of Phase IV areas, occupants will be moving in to Phase III, the northwest quadrant of the MSB (adjacent to Eden Avenue and Albert Sabin Way). Move-in to Phase II, the northeast quadrant (adjacent to the Cardiovascular Research Center and Albert Sabin Way), was mostly completed in December 2011, although a few areas remained vacant in order to accept Phase IV occupants. (Phase I was construction of the CARE/Crawley Building.)

Phase III, rehabilitation work in the MSB’s northwest quadrant, is currently under way following completion and move-in for Phase II, the northeast quadrant, in December 2011. (The northwest quadrant faces Eden Avenue and Albert Sabin Way; the northeast quadrant faces the Cardiovascular Research Center and Albert Sabin Way.) Phase III work is scheduled for completion Nov. 30, 2012, with move-in scheduled for December 2012 to May 2013.

"Over 30 departments or divisions will be affected by Phase IV relocations,” says Lejla Zejnilovic, a planner in Planning, Design and Construction. "We’ve been meeting with them and will continue to do so to ensure that these relocations go as smoothly as possible.”

Zejnilovic says some occupants of Phase IV areas will move into the newly rehabilitated Phase III areas as well as Phase II areas, while others will be moving to other buildings on or near the medical campus, including the Stetson Building, or to UC’s Victory Parkway Campus. The Victory Parkway Campus, not to be confused with the UC Physicians office building on Victory Parkway near Martin Luther King Drive, is located at 2220 Victory Parkway and is the site of the former College of Applied Science.

"Shuttle transportation to the Victory Parkway Campus is being finalized and reinstatement of food service there is being investigated,” says Zejnilovic. (There is existing weekday shuttle service from the west campus to Victory Parkway, but that service has no stops in between.)

Zejnilovic says she has verified existing space and personnel in Phase IV, and has met with department representatives to discuss the pending relocations. She has also prepared drawings that show options for where the departments can go while work is under way. Departments were asked to designate a "departmental move coordinator” to serve as a liaison with Planning, Design and Construction.

Zejnilovic says now is a good time for departments to look at their furniture and equipment inventories and reduce them if possible before the actual move by discarding any broken or unusable items.

Because of major reconfigurations to the space involved, not everyone who moves out will move back in to the Phase IV area in MSB when work is complete in 2015. Planning for MSB after Phase IV completion will begin in winter 2012 in conjunction with a master plan for the medical campus.