“In alignment with our missions of advanced growth, cutting-edge research, and groundbreaking innovation, the School of Medicine's facilities projects will support our goal of being the Preferred Academic Medical Center of the 21st century,” says Selwyn M. Vickers, M.D., FACS, dean of the School of Medicine. “The new spaces will allow for more interdisciplinary collaboration and help recruit top talent in scientific fields. I am proud of our efforts and thank our State governmental leaders, UAB Administration, and UA System leadership for their support.”

The building was announced in December 2020, with funding from the state, county and philanthropy. The project will renovate the existing Lyons-Harrison Research Building to encompass 145,000 square feet of new computational research, research support, office, administrative and scientific collaboration and meeting spaces.

Two buildings will be razed this summer to make space for the enhanced space: the Kracke Building and the Pittman Center for Advanced Medical Studies.

Current Project Status

Occupants of Kracke and Pittman are being moved to other locations to prepare for demolition of those buildings. Occupants of Lyons-Harrison will also be moved, as the building will be extensively remodeled.

Those Kracke and Pittman occupants have already been contacted by project team members to facilitate their moves.

Finished Project Highlights

UAB is anticipating the new space to:

• Provide attractive recruiting space for researchers
• Support more than 50 additional leading researchers and 300 research support staff, and an increase of $75 million-$85 million in research funding
• Facilitate linking researchers from different fields who share a common interest in genomics and translational data sciences
• Build on UAB’s success in personalized medicine