The site presented a challenge as it sloped steeply. Elevations ranged from 853’ to 880’, resulting in an elevation change of 27 feet from end to end along the north edge of the site. The elevation of the first floor of the building was carefully determined to seamlessly accommodate handicapped accessibility at building entrances and to accommodate the large truck loading dock along the north side of the site.

The building site is at the most visible edge of the UM Medical School campus: from the street traffic of the town, from UM’s Central Campus and from the newly constructed Life Sciences complex across the street. The architects approach to creating a gateway building and new identity was at the outset to study planning options in the Pre-Design phase that allowed them to extend the lawn from the adjacent Palmer Field to the project site. This allowed the mass of the building to sit back from the street.They assembled a building massing composition and material palette that fit into the campus context and was to be expressive of the new, creative technology that researchers in the Medical School will use in their research.

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