Centerbrook Designing Medical School

CENTERBROOK, Conn. -- Centerbrook Architects has begun design of Quinnipiac University’s new Medical School on its 104-acre North Haven Campus, comprised of four existing buildings. Slated for a phased opening beginning in 2013 with a focus on primary care and global health, it will join Yale University and the University of Connecticut as the third medical school in Connecticut. Eventual enrollment is projected to be 150 students per class.

The $35 million project calls for the renovation and reconfiguration of parts of two existing office buildings on the campus with a total of 140,000 square feet. In 2009, Centerbrook completed the transformation of a third building into the new home for the Quinnipiac School of Health Sciences, which confers degrees in nursing, physician assistant, physical therapy, occupational therapy, pathologist assistant, radiology assistant, and diagnostic imaging.

Adding a medical school to Quinnipiac University’s schools of law, communications, business, education, health sciences and its College of Arts and Sciences, will further advance its transformation into a nationally ranked university. Of its 3,600 peer institutions nationwide, only 89 have both a law and medical school.

In addition to designing the schools of law, communications, and business, and over 40 other projects at Quinnipiac during the past 32 years, Centerbrook was the architect for the University’s recently opened York Hill Campus in Hamden, CT. Jefferson B. Riley, FAIA, has been the Partner-in-Charge of all projects at the University since 1978. Agatha Pestilli, AIA, is Centerbrook’s Project Manager for the new medical school.

With the recently passed national health care reform bringing as many as an additional 30 million more Americans into the U.S. health care system, the country will require a significantly higher number of health and medical professionals trained to deliver primary care. “Quinnipiac will be at the forefront nationally in addressing this critical health care need,” said university President John L. Lahey. “A Quinnipiac medical school with a primary care emphasis, combined with our existing primary care-focused nurse practitioner and physician assistant programs, will make Quinnipiac uniquely positioned to help solve the primary care needs of our country.”