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Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to construct $180M research tower

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has announced plans to build a new 15-story research tower uptown at its Avondale campus. The new 425,000-square-foot clinical research facility will make the Cincinnati Children’s the largest pediatric research facility in the United States.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has confirmed plans for a new uptown research tower. Hospital officials say that construction on the new $180 million, 15-story tower will begin June of this year.

Work at the congested site will be performed by Messer Construction and is expected to be completed by summer 2015. The possibility of such a project was first reported on by the Business Courier last month.

The new tower will be located immediately next to, and integrated with a research tower Cincinnati Children’s completed in 2007. Officials declined to comment on future employment numbers at the new tower, but did state that the adjacent 11-story tower houses approximately 1,100 employees.


The $180 million Clinical Research Building will make Cincinnati Children’s Hospital the largest pediatric research center in the United States. Renderings provided.

In a memo obtained by UrbanCincy, Dr. Arnold Strauss, director of the Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation, stated, “In the five years since Location S opened, our research enterprise has greatly flourished. The construction of this Clinical Sciences Building will provide that room to grow, but will also allow consolidation of research efforts now occurring at the Oak campus, back together with our Clinical & Translational Research Clinic.”

Dr. Strauss believes that the 425,000 square feet of new research space will improve efficiency and increase the scope of the hospital’s patient-oriented research, while also delving deeper into childhood disease issues.

The contemporary tower will include new laboratories, an outpatient clinic, imaging facility, office space, supporting infrastructure, and was designed by a team of architecture firms including GBBN Architects, HDR, Inc., and Geier Brown Renfrow Architects.

“This new space will enable us to attract and retain more of the world’s top-notch researchers, innovators and clinicians who want to be at the leading edge of discovery,” Michael Fisher, president and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s, stated in a prepared release.

Hospital officials say that the project is being financed through a combination of operating cash and investments, future operating cash flows and private donations. The new building is one of six towers at least 100 feet in height UrbanCincy projects to be built over the remainder of the decade in Cincinnati.

By Randy A. Simes

Randy is an award-winning urban planner who founded UrbanCincy in May 2007. He grew up on Cincinnati’s west side in Covedale, and graduated from the University of Cincinnati’s nationally acclaimed School of Planning in June 2009. In addition to maintaining ownership and serving as the managing editor for UrbanCincy, Randy has worked professionally as a planning consultant throughout the United States, Korea and the Middle East. After brief stints in Atlanta and Chicago, he currently lives in the Daechi neighborhood of Seoul’s Gangnam district.