HOK and brg3s architects are designing a $350m medical education building for the University of Tennessee Health Sciences campus in Memphis, US.
The seven-storey College of Medicine Interdisciplinary Building will contain 300,000ft2 of teaching, simulation, research and student facilities. Construction is expected to begin in late 2026. Substantial completion is planned for 2029, followed by full occupancy in 2030.
International architecture, engineering and planning practice HOK reviewed the university’s existing space and prepared the building programme. It is collaborating on the design with brg3s architects, a Memphis-based practice with a long record in healthcare projects.
It is the largest state-funded higher-education capital project in Tennessee’s history. The state has appropriated $311m towards construction.
First dedicated home planned for medical college
The building will give the university’s College of Medicine, the largest of its six health sciences colleges, its first dedicated home. Students will begin their medical training there before continuing their education in Memphis, Chattanooga, Knoxville or Nashville.
The extra space will allow the medical school to raise its annual intake from 175 to 250 students. Places on the physician assistant programme are expected to double from 30 to 60 a year.
UT Health Sciences estimates that the building will enable it to graduate an additional 1,450 healthcare professionals during its first five years of operation. Tennessee is projected to face a shortage of 6,000 physicians by 2030.
The plans combine flexible teaching and support rooms with specialist simulation facilities and an interdisciplinary commons. Other areas are set aside for digital health, technology development, external organisations and a health incubator. The building will also be used for telehealth and online teaching.
Design draws on Memphis rivers and bridges
The building will stand on Madison Avenue between the College of Pharmacy and Pauline Street. A former Holiday Inn on part of the site has been demolished.
The university said its form refers to the Memphis rivers and bridges while relating to the different architectural styles found across the campus.
An entrance gathering space will face Madison Avenue. The plans also include a rooftop garden, event terrace, sky cloister and study areas outside the formal teaching rooms.
Public areas will occupy 16,935ft2, including the lobby, quiet rooms, seminar rooms and student study spaces. A further 17,000ft2 will be used for digital health, specialist simulation, technology development and external partnerships.
UT Health Sciences is seeking $50m in philanthropic support in addition to the state appropriation. It plans to put $39m towards construction, increasing the capital funding to $350m, and spend the remaining $11m on equipment and academic programmes. First Horizon Foundation has committed $5m as the campaign’s lead private gift.
Nursing building tops out in Chattanooga
HOK is also designing the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Dorothy and Jim Kennedy Health Sciences Building with Chattanooga-based architecture practice franklin|architects. The Christman Company is the contractor.
The three-storey, 90,000ft2 building will house the university’s College of Nursing. Construction began in November 2024 and the building topped out in April 2026. Completion is scheduled for 2027.
The $77m project includes flexible classrooms, standardised-patient examination rooms, task-training areas and simulated intensive care, emergency care and labour-and-delivery settings. Dedicated debriefing rooms will be used to review recorded clinical exercises. A central atrium will contain study and gathering space.
UTC expects the building to increase nursing enrolment by 152%. More than 70% of its bachelor’s nursing graduates remain in the Chattanooga area after completing their studies.
Images: Courtesy of HOK
