The New Yorker Features Architectural Design of UCSF Stem Cell Building
In the September 19, 2011 issue of The New Yorker, architecture critic Paul Goldberger features UCSF’s Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine as one of three new science buildings in the United States “crafted with the specific intention of fostering interaction and connections, as a means of generating ideas.”
Constructed on what Goldberger called an “eye-poppingly impossible site,” the building is home to some 300 scientists studying the earliest stages of cell and tissue development, with the goal of understanding and developing cell-based treatment strategies for such diseases as heart disease, diabetes, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, spinal cord injury and cancer.
Referring to architect Rafael Viñoly, who designed the building in collaboration with SmithGroup, Goldberger wrote, he “slipped a long, ribbonlike building along the contours of the ridge, supporting it on cantilevered steel columns.”
The building, which officially opened in February, is the headquarters for the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF. The center extends across all UCSF campuses and is one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind in the United States.
The $123 million building was paid for with state and private funds. In 2006, Ray and Dagmar Dolby contributed $16 million to launch the university’s fundraising campaign for the facility. In 2007, UCSF received a highly competitive $34.9 million grant from California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). In 2008, UCSF received a $25 million grant from The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Last winter, UCSF received an additional $20 million donation from the Dolbys. The university has $12 million left to raise.
For an abstract of the article, or to pay for full access (also available on newsstands) go here.
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