Groundbreaking at UC Health Celebrates Future Home of Neurosciences

Today, May 23, 2017, UC Health officially broke ground on its newest clinical outpatient facility, the University of Cincinnati (UC) Gardner Neuroscience Institute.

At the ceremony, UC Health also announced Messer Construction Company as the builder for the $60.5 million project. Messer’s portfolio includes numerous health care facilities including medical centers and medical office buildings, surgical suites and research facilities. 

Construction will begin just after Memorial Day on the four-story patient care building designed by global architecture and design firm, Perkins+Will. When completed in 2019, the Uptown facility, positioned along Martin Luther King Drive and Eden Avenue, will house all outpatient neurologic care and patient education activities, as well as offer patients better access to advanced clinical trials.

"While today is the symbolic start to a new ‘bricks and mortar’ project, we know the work to bring us to this point began decades ago,” said Richard Lofgren, MD, UC Health president and CEO. "This new building will be a place where our entire team of caregivers can work together better for the patient.”

The UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute provides comprehensive care across its 14 specialty centers including treatments for Parkinson’s, epilepsy, brain tumors, mood disorders, stroke care and rehabilitation and Alzheimer’s. Last year, UC Health clinicians within the neurosciences saw more than 56,000 patients. The new central location will allow the institute to better serve the growing patient population and will help attract and retain the top health care professionals working in the neuroscience field today.

"For our more than 125 UC College of Medicine faculty physicians and clinical researchers who make up the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute, it will be a place to collaborate and continue to transform care through research and education,” said William Ball, MD, senior vice president for health affairs at UC, and dean of the College of Medicine. "Ultimately this means thousands of patients are offered access to leading-edge research and clinical trials by our faculty physicians.”  

"Also incorporating educational components, the facility will feature learning spaces for patients, physicians and the community, and health professions students who will complete clinical rotations there,” Ball said.  

"I’ve been a part of this neuroscience team at UC since the 1980s, and I can honestly say it’s never had as much momentum as it does today,” said Joseph Broderick, MD, professor of neurology at the College of Medicine and director of the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute. "We owe a great deal of that momentum to the support of the Gardner family.” 

The groundbreaking event included an unveiling of a "fly-through” video to give the community a virtual view of exterior and interior spaces.

From the lighting throughout to seating in the waiting areas, Perkins+Will incorporated the feedback of a patient advisory group to design the space with neurological patients in mind. Their input was considered in every aspect, from the conference and education spaces to clinical care locations, and even the readily accessible parking located underground. Spaces will facilitate collaboration among physicians and incorporate integrative medicine, including yoga, mindfulness, stress reduction, diet education and tai chi. Physicians also hope to inform food options available in the wellness café.

"We’re excited; we really are. We feel like as patients, we’ve been heard,” says Don Yelton, who along with his wife Janice, were part of the patient advisory group. "The fact that we [gave] input in these meetings, we’ve had at least a half dozen meetings with the design team. And we don't know all the final designs yet, but at least you know you’ve been heard.”

The new UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute building is made possible by the generosity of the Cincinnati community. In 2015, the UC Foundation launched a $54.5 million fundraising campaign to contribute to the creation of the new facility and to expand programming at the institute. More than $40 million already has been raised, including a $14 million gift from the James J. and Joan A. Gardner Family Foundation. The Farmer Family Foundation also contributed a lead gift.

Additional information available:

Fly-through video:

foundation.uc.edu/neuro-video 

Designing the New UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute video:

https://youtu.be/LSnMNlXwFpM

Website: 

UCHealth.com/transforming-complex-care/