Recent visitors to the campus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have undoubtedly noticed plenty of construction going on there.
The school is in the middle of an effort to build a total of nine new facilities, many of which are already transforming the campus.
Brian Burnett, UAB's senior vice president of finance and administration for UAB, joked to WBRC-TV in mid-February that the construction crane is the university's unofficial bird. Several new facilities and renovations are going up all over campus including an update to the Unity Park green space, seven new buildings and a new parking deck.
Burnett said a $76 million science and engineering complex is nearing completion and will be ready to welcome students this fall. UAB also has broken ground on a nearly $157 million inpatient rehabilitation facility that will replace the existing Spain Rehabilitation Center. That new building is expected to open in 2025.
Nearby, a new $36 million parking deck will house almost 1,200 spaces next door to the new Cooper Green outpatient clinic.
These are just a few of the projects in the works, but Burnett said they support UAB's mission to serve the entire community and beyond.
"The research we do [is] for not just our state, but our country," he explained. "It makes UAB a more competitive academic institution, [and] a better clinical enterprise with our hospital and health system. These investments continue to [help us] partner with our community in very important ways."
Altogether, Burnett listed about $500 million in construction under way at UAB, all funded by public, private, federal, state, and local money.
On its website, UAB said it continues to implement its Campus Master Plan through these new facilities and renovations to enhance instruction, research, technology and student life. Some are under construction, while others are in the planning stages — among them the seven new buildings and the parking deck.
Science, Engineering Complex
Currently under construction on the site of the former Education Building on 14th Street South between University Boulevard and 10th Avenue South, UAB's new Science and Engineering Complex will be home to the school's basic sciences programs, including the departments of Biology and Physics, and teaching labs for the Department of Chemistry.
The 138,842-sq.-ft. instructional facility will house classrooms alongside faculty and staff offices and feature collaboration rooms designed to foster a team-learning environment and project-based research, UAB added, plus labs that enable student shadowing.
The university broke ground on the project in fall 2021; completion is expected in May, and classes will begin in the building at the start of the fall semester.
Genomic Medicine, Biomedical Conference Center
The Altec/Styslinger Genomic Medicine and Data Sciences Building, and the Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation Conference Center are being constructed at Seventh Avenue South between 19th and 20th streets in Birmingham at the former site of the Kracke Building and Pittman Center for Advanced Medical Studies.
The project is funded with donations from the Altec/Styslinger Foundation and Marnix and Mary Heersink, longtime UAB donors, in addition to monies from the state of Alabama and Jefferson County.
The 175,000-sq.-ft. building is designed to bring together researchers, equipment, and staff for the Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine Institute, the Informatics Institute and translational scientists from many different disciplines, and involves a renovation of the existing Lyons-Harrison Research Building. It will include space for computational research, support, offices, administrative and scientific collaboration, and meeting spaces designed to meet the specific needs of genomics and precision medicine investigators and their programs.
UAB broke ground on the project in April 2022, and construction is expected to be completed in spring 2024.
Cooper Green Mercy Health
The new and improved building, created through an agreement between the Jefferson County Commission and the UAB Health System to form the Cooper Green Mercy Health Services Authority in April 2020, will replace the former Cooper Green parking deck on Sixth Avenue South between Children's of Alabama and Bartow Arena. The old deck was demolished in early 2022.
The new Cooper Green Mercy Health building will be five stories tall and encompass 211,000 sq. ft. Its overall estimated cost is $120 million. The project's groundbreaking was Jan. 9, and UAB officials hope it will be finished in early 2025.
UAB Student Organization Facility
A new home for Student Affairs from which to run UAB's registered student organizations will be located at the northwest corner of 14th Street South and 11th Avenue. It will feature 12,800 sq. ft. of space for small, medium and large multipurpose rooms, in addition to a warming kitchen and an administrative suite. Construction on this structure also began in January and will be completed in October.
Child Development Center
A new UAB Child Development Center is under construction at 10th Avenue South and 11th Street between the Education and Engineering Complex, and Birmingham City School's EPIC Alternative Elementary. The center will house a total of 18,500 sq. ft. and feature a 9,700-sq.-ft. exterior playground.
The structure will accommodate 224 students, enabling a 100 percent increase in enrollment. Its construction is expected to last one year, with a projected opening in January 2024.
14th Street Parking Deck
The new 405,000-sq.-ft. parking deck at 14th Street South and Seventh Avenue will provide approximately 1,150 spaces. Work on the building began in December, and the university hopes it will be finished in March 2024.
Spain Rehabilitation Center
UAB broke ground on its replacement inpatient rehabilitation facility last May. The 350,000-sq.-ft. project, at Seventh Avenue South and 18th Street, will replace the existing Spain Rehab Center. The new 11-story building will hold 78 rehabilitation beds, 28 acute care beds and technology specifically designed to give comprehensive rehabilitation care to patients from across the region when it is open in 2025.
Biomedical Research, Psychology Building
Announced earlier this year following stage 1 approval from the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, this new building will one day be located between Volker Hall and the Hill Student Center on University Boulevard.
It will house the research-intensive departments of the Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine and the College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Psychology. In addition, it will contain both wet and dry research laboratories and research support spaces as well as supply the flexibility necessary for investigators from various fields and disciplines. The project is supported by $152 million in federal funding.
Unity Park Renovation
Finally, an upgrade to Unity Park, the green space at the corner of University Boulevard and 18th Street South next to UAB's School of Nursing, is nearing completion. Improvements include multiple seating areas, a lawn for outdoor gatherings or instruction, and space for outdoor artwork. The park's reopening is tentatively scheduled for this spring.
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