The new 105,000 sf addition to Scaife Hall at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine recently celebrated a major milestone with its topping off ceremony. Guests at the ceremony included leadership from UPMC and the School of Medicine as well as faculty, staff and students.
The existing building is an inward, isolated teaching environment with minimal student space or views to the outside. The new addition provides a variety of student spaces and brings daylight into the building. Program spaces include a 2,900 sf gross anatomy lab for 156 students, a series of large classrooms, small group rooms and wet and dry teaching labs. A major challenge was the client wanted a space that could accommodate the entire student body. The design solution is a 600-person auditorium with an operable partition which allows for two 250-person classrooms when the auditorium is not in use.
The new addition is scheduled to open in August 2022.