New Health Professions Center Underway

CENTERBROOK, Conn. – Centerbrook has completed and begun implementing a Master Plan for Quinnipiac University’s new 104-acre North Haven Campus, which will encompass the establishment of the Frank H. Netter, M.D. School of Medicine as a part of a Health Professions Center. The development of the university’s third campus, formerly the headquarters of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, began in 2009 with the completion of the new home for the School of Health Sciences, a $30 million 190,000-square-foot project. It confers degrees in nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, diagnostic imaging, and for pathologist assistants, radiology assistants, and. physician assistants.

As with the Health Sciences project, the $45 million Medical School calls for the renovation and reconfiguration of an existing office building, which totals 140,000 square feet. The two schools will be joined on all three floors, and Centerbrook is designing a formal entrance connecting them that will serve as the gateway to the graduate campus. In addition to a main lobby affording access to an auditorium and two lecture halls, the Grand Entry will house a Medical Library.

The Medical School will focus on primary care and global health, and will join Yale University and the University of Connecticut as the third such institution in Connecticut. A phased opening beginning in 2012 and completed in 2013 is planned, and eventual enrollment will be 150 students per class. Quinnipiac’s schools of Nursing and Education and the Graduate Admissions Office also are located in the Health Sciences building. A third and fourth building on the site will be renovated to house research laboratories and facilities for its existing schools of Law and Business respectively.

Adding a medical school to Quinnipiac University’s other graduate programs will further advance its national reputation. Of its 3,600 peer institutions nationwide, only 89 have both a law and medical school.

Centerbrook has designed more than 45 projects on the Quinnipiac’s three campuses since the late 1970s. Founded in 1929 as a two-year college, today Quinnipiac is a major university with 5,700 undergraduates and 2,500 graduate students. National ranking surveys that place it in the top tier of American universities frequently cite the allure of its campus and modern facilities.

Jefferson B. Riley, FAIA, has been the Partner-in-Charge of all projects at the University since 1978. Agatha Pestilli, AIA, is Project Manager for the Health Professions Center.