HOK Selected To Lead Design of New Medical School in Downtown Buffalo

The State University of New York at Buffalo <a href="http://www.buffalo.edu/ubreporter/2012_05_17/smbs_architect">recently announced</a> that it has selected <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/hok-architects/">HOK Architects</a> to lead the design of a new School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in the City's downtown area. HOK's proposed design for the new building is a sprawling, glass-sheathed structure that aims to achieve LEED Gold certification. Design concepts produced by HOK and three other design firms will be used to develop the final design for the new medical school. The transit-oriented development will be adjacent to a station on Buffalo's only subway line, which runs from downtown to the university's South Campus.

The $375-million medical school will be funded in part by NYSUNY 2020, a wide-ranging master plan for New York’s public university system.

Buffalo, NY was once known for its cutting-edge architecture. The Rust Belt city boasts several structures designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan and Daniel Burnham -- but most of them were built more than a century ago.

As the city's population shrank with the loss of manufacturing jobs in recent decades, Buffalo hasn't been known for it's cutting-edge, green buildings. But that could change with the proposed development of the new medical school on SUNY Buffalo's downtown campus.

The $375-million medical school will be funded in part by NYSUNY 2020, a wide-ranging master plan for New York's public university system.

In the next stage of the process, a public exhibition of design ideas by all four finalists will be held and conversations between the university and community stakeholders will be held over the design of the proposed building. Groundbreaking for the new medical school is scheduled for fall 2013, and construction is expected to be completed in 2016.

This is the design concept produced by Rafael Vinoly Architects. In winning the international design contest to design the building, HOK beat out several other prominent firms, including Pelli Clarke Pelli/Cannon Design, Grimshaw and Davis Brody Bond, and Rafael Vinoly Architects.