UBC planning new $570 million flagship building for Faculty of Medicine

Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health (foreground) and UBC Hospital (background) at the University of British Columbia's Vancouver campus. (Google Maps)

The University of British Columbia (UBC) is in the very early stages of planning the construction of a new flagship building for the Faculty of Medicine at its Vancouver campus.

With a total floor area of over 420,000 sq ft, this will be one of the single largest buildings at the campus, providing the faculty with new and expanded flexible, state-of-the-art research and teaching space.

More specifically, it will consolidate existing infrastructure and equipment to centralize the faculty’s facilities, including clinical, lab, and incubator spaces, as well as interdisciplinary exchange spaces, interactive common areas, administrative offices, and space for about 100 new tenure-track research faculty members and their supporting research staff and graduate students.

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The university has not indicated the precise location of the new building, but it is expected to be within very close proximity to UBC Hospital. The faculty’s existing facilities are currently clustered within and around the general vicinity of the hospital, with many buildings approaching the end of their lifespan.

For example, some of the oldest and largest buildings in this area are located at the prominent southeast corner of the intersection of University Boulevard and East Mall — just across from the UBC Bookstore. Sitting on this large lot are the Wesbrook Building, which opened in 1951 as the Preventative Medicine Institute, and the George Cunningham Building, which opened in 1961 as an expansion of the Wesbrook Building. Over the years, UBC’s capital plans have identified a need to replace these buildings for seismic reasons alone.

UBC’s draft 2050 campus plan shows the future redevelopment of most of the buildings that surround the main hospital building, including the Wesbrook Building, George Cunningham Building, J.B. Macdonald Building, Detwiller Pavilion, Purdy Pavilion, and the UBC Health Sciences Parkade. The vacant lot at the northeast corner of the intersection of Wesbrook Mall and Agronomy Road (adjacent to the Life Sciences Building and Pharmaceutical Sciences Building) will also see new uses.

Few details are available; a potential design has not been established at this highly conceptual stage of planning. It should be noted that this project is not related to the provincial government’s recent announcement of expanding the number of seats at UBC’s medical school.

The life sciences precinct of UBC Vancouver’s academic campus is anchored by UBC Hospital. (Google Earth)

UBC Wesbrook Building (Google Maps)

However, with a budget of $567 million, the new Medicine One building — one of the five priority projects in the university’s five-year capital plan for academic buildings — will be one of the single most expensive projects in UBC’s history. It is anticipated the provincial government will cover about $264 million, and the university will contribute another $264 million, with an additional $16 million coming from the deferred maintenance of existing faculty buildings set to be demolished for the project.

The Faculty of Medicine is already undergoing an expansion of its spaces with the current construction of the new School of Biomedical Engineering Building, which will be a shared space with the Faculty of Applied Science. The $136-million, 156,000 sq ft building is being built immediately south of University Boulevard’s trolley bus loop, and it is set for a 2024 completion.

The Faculty of Applied Science’s School of Nursing is also seeing a major renewal and expansion of its facilities, with the construction of the new Gateway Building at the northwest corner of the intersection of University Boulevard and Wesbrook Mall. This $190-million, 267,000 sq ft building, a shared space with the Faculty of Education’s School of Kinesiology and other health-related uses, is also set to open in 2024.

UBC’s latest capital plan also indicates the Faculty of Dentistry is planning a 95,000 sq ft expansion of its facilities at an estimated cost of $81 million, with the provincial government and university each contributing $40.5 million. This has been identified as a top priority by the faculty’s leadership to alleviate critical space pressures. This project is also in the early stages of planning, and no timeline has been established.

UBC’s current capital plan spanning through the 2030s carries a total estimated cost of at least $3.5 billion, including $2.4 billion for academic buildings, $373 million for student housing and amenities, and $754 million for sustainability and seismic upgrades. These figures do not account for planned projects that do not have an attached estimated cost, including the full replacement of Place Vanier’s student residence of 2,500 beds and Totem Field’s student residence of 700 beds, which are amongst the oldest student housing complexes at the campus.

Existing condition of the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus. (Google Earth)

UBC’s 2050 growth – Option 1: Tower-based Acadia redevelopment, along with new academic and student housing buildings. (UBC)

The capital plan also notes UBC is planning a 500,000 sq ft building development in Surrey City Centre, but an estimated cost has not been made. It will be built at a three-acre site at 9770 King George Boulevard — the southeast corner of the intersection of King George Boulevard and Fraser Highway, strategically near SkyTrain King George Station and Surrey Memorial Hospital — which was acquired by the university for $70 million in 2021. UBC previously suggested this will be a mixed-use development with academic space and housing.

Currently, UBC’s Faculty of Medicine is home to British Columbia’s only medicine school for training doctors, but that will change in 2026, when Simon Fraser University (SFU) opens its new medical school in Surrey City Centre.

It is anticipated the new medical school will require significant purpose-built, specialized academic spaces, but the precise location is not known at this time.

SFU told Daily Hive Urbanized its medical school will be centred near the SFU Surrey campus and throughout community-based settings. More details will be shared at a later date.

Currently, SFU Surrey has 323,000 sq ft of academic space within the Central City complex for programs such as engineering, criminology, literature, life sciences, professional development for teachers, and the Quantum Algorithms Institute. In 2016, it opened the 221,000 sq ft Sustainability Engineering Building across from Central City at a cost of $126 million.

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