New Health Sciences Building Officially Open
This message was shared with students, faculty and staff by the President and Provost on September 19, 2022.
Dear Students and Colleagues,
The beginning of an academic year is always a joyful and exciting time, as we reunite with friends and colleagues and welcome a new class of Drexel Dragons.
Another momentous occasion marks the start of this fall quarter: The official opening of Drexel University’s new Health Sciences Building, which is already coming to life with the first classes of the year.
Located at 36th and Filbert Streets, this 12-story, 460,000-square-foot building will serve as the academic home of the College of Nursing and Health Professions, the College of Medicine and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professional Studies, uniting many of Drexel’s health-related programs in one incredible space. The building features state-of-the-art instructional and simulation spaces, anatomy labs, standardized patient care rooms, and creative arts therapy and physical therapy research and teaching spaces, strengthening Drexel’s mission to provide high-quality health care education and scientific training. The space also promotes collaboration and community building through group-learning spaces, student lounges, flex spaces and a ground-floor cafe.
In these new facilities, our students will gain immersive learning experiences that will enhance their interprofessional clinical skills and prepare them to become the next generation of health care and service leaders. The space also expands Drexel’s research infrastructure, supporting innovation and the critical, often life-saving research of our faculty. As many of Drexel’s health-related programs unite under one roof and find a new home on our main campus, the building will also help to promote interdisciplinary collaboration across Drexel’s diverse colleges, schools and centers of innovation.
After waiting many years for a facility befitting our institutional strengths in the health sciences, the College of Nursing and Health Professions has now relocated from Three Parkway and two other Center City buildings to the Health Sciences Building. In a phased approach, some programs in the College of Medicine’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professional Studies will move to the new building in January 2023. The College of Medicine’s MD program will begin its August 2023 academic year in the building, with plans to eventually move the rest of the College of Medicine and its Graduate School to University City.
The move will not only allow students in these programs greater access to the main campus’ resources and facilities, but also will connect them with the neighboring community and transformational opportunities for community engagement. As the latest addition to the uCity Square Innovation district, the building, developed in partnership with Wexford Science + Technology and real estate investment trust Ventas, will further strengthen our relationships with our West Philadelphia neighbors. It sits adjacent to the Samuel Powel Elementary School and the Science Leadership Academy Middle School (SLAMS), also developed by Drexel and Wexford.
We are thankful to the partners who helped make this possible, including Wexford and Ventas, architectural firm Ballinger, Turner Construction and Perryman Building and Construction, and the more than 1,450 tradespeople who worked directly on the construction of this building. We are also deeply grateful to the faculty and professional staff in the College of Nursing and Health Professions and College of Medicine who informed the building design, led by Deans Laura Gitlin and Chuck Cairns, and to our Drexel colleagues in Real Estate and Facilities for leading this project: Alan Greenberger, Nancy Trainer, Terri Schmitt and Gail Holmes.
These facilities are open to the entire Drexel community. We invite you to visit the Health Sciences Building and explore this magnificent space.
Best wishes for an inspiring start to the academic year.
John Fry
President
Paul E. Jensen
Executive Vice President
Nina Henderson Provost