McGlothlin Medical Education Center, VCU | Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects LLP

In the tradition of the nearby Thomas Jefferson–designed Virginia State Capitol, the new VCU School of Medicine gives architectural voice to its societal purpose and provides inventive accommodation for the medical school community.

Occupying a site within the dense, urban MCV Campus in the heart of downtown Richmond, the project called for a strategy that would open the building to its context while defining the building mass with a number of discrete, well-scaled components. An inviting and efficient diagonal pedestrian circulation path through the building resolves a disjuncture between the symbolic center of the campus to the east and its functional center to the west.

The sequence of spaces from the entrance on 12th Street includes the covered portico, a double-height lobby, and a diagonal ramp that serves as a stepped forum space. The second floor accommodates a bridge to Main Hospital, a 250-seat auditorium, and an overlook to the main lobby. The elevator bank, placed to allow large flexible floor plates, accommodates a variety of uses, from a 300-seat auditorium to teaching studios, simulation labs, and dry labs on the upper floors. Faculty offices, administrative offices, and meeting rooms are consolidated in perimeter zones.

Designed for LEED Silver certification, the project includes climate walls with computer-controlled electronic sunshades, internal sunshades, and plentiful natural light.

SITE
Medical quadrant of downtown Richmond campus

COMPONENTS
205,000 ft2 / 19,000 m2 gross area; research spaces, clinical skills & simulation spaces, flexible teaching spaces, auditorium, student interaction areas, administration and faculty offices, student affairs spaces, technology services, public spaces, and a bridge to an adjacent building

CLIENT
Virginia Commonwealth University

PCF&P SERVICES
Architecture; exterior envelope; interior design of public spaces

STRUCTURE
Steel frame, concrete slab on metal deck. Precast concrete.

SUSTAINABILITY
LEED Silver Certified

AWARDS
Outstanding Design
American School & University, 2013

Award for Excellence
Architectural Precast Association, 2015