The largest medical education facility under construction in the U.S. has begun to take shape at Main and High streets. Steel erection at the site of the University at Buffalo’s new School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is underway for floors one through three. Construction for floors four through eight starts this summer.
Photo by WBFO
Photo by Sean Brodfuehrer
The largest construction project in UB’s 167-year history is set to conclude in 2017 and bring with it 2,000 faculty, students and staff to downtown Buffalo.
In March, personnel from UB, LP Ciminelli, HOK and Gilbane/LiRo got a sneak peek of the building’s exterior while at the Construction Research Laboratory in Miami, where a 30-by-36-foot mockup of part of the building’s facade was constructed. It took several weeks to construct the mockup, which then was subjected to simulations of powerful rain and windstorms to see how the building’s exterior will hold up against the elements.
The primary components tested were a glass curtain wall and its high-performance terra cotta rainscreen manufactured by Boston Valley Terra Cotta. The design passed “with flying colors.”
“Terra cotta was selected for a variety of reasons,” said David Schwartz, principal and senior project manager at HOK, the firm that designed the medical school. “It reflects and acknowledges the history of Buffalo’s architecture with colors emulating those on the Frank Lloyd Wright Darwin Martin House. The terra cotta panels also have an appealing, hand-made quality.”