Construction of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) Clinical Sciences Center kicked off today with a groundbreaking ceremony for the 11-story, 142,000-square-foot, $40 million state-of-the-art facility that will house enhanced clinical care resources to help RPCI save lives and find cures for cancer.
The Clinical Sciences Center will be located at Michigan and Carlton Streets. It is the first construction project for RPCI since 2007. It is also the first clinical expansion project underway for RPCI since 15 years ago.
The center will offer a breast center; an expanded mammography center (the capacity to conduct annual mammogram screening will increase to 10,000); a new chemo-infusion clinic; an adolescent and young adult clinic; patient education and survivorship programs to reach patients, caregivers and family members; and state-of-the-art office facilities and space for clinician-scientists to analyze data from clinical studies.
Out of the $40 million raised for the facility, $25 million was raised through the Making Room to Save Lives: The Campaign to Build a Greater Roswell Park – a Roswell Park Alliance Foundation initiative that also received $10 million from the Circle of Ten (a group of 10 Western New York business and philanthropic leaders). There were 425 donors that contributed to Phase I of the fundraising efforts, including Roswell Park employees who collectively donated more than $1 million and a $1.5 million donation from New Era Cap in November 2012.
The groundbreaking is said to put RPCI right on schedule to meet the needs of the growing number of patients served. Within the last 5 years, RPCI has experienced a 39% patient increase and a 58% rise in outpatient wp-contentointments over the last 10 years. Nationally known for its care for cancer patients, the increase is due to a number of factors including an aging population and growth in translational research breakthroughs.
In addition to being able to help patients in the future, the center will presently boost the economy by way of a Project Labor Agreement that has been wp-contentroved by 18 different local trades. This will lead to the use of local contractors and labor for the shell, core and 4 clinical floors within the center. The Clinical Sciences Center will be responsible for the creation of more than 200 construction and 340 long-term full-time jobs.
The building, which will also be connected to the adjacent main RPCI hospital, is expected to be completed in 2015.
*Pictures from retrieved from RPCI Web site