19 October 2022: The Groundbreaking
Indiana University School of Medicine broke ground on its medical education and research building on 19 October 2022. The school put the budget at $230 million. The building was set at 11 stories and 326,200 gross square feet, west of Senate Avenue and south of the IU Neurosciences Research Center on 16th Street, per the school's release of that day.
IU President Pamela Whitten spoke at the ceremony about the school's mission and its partnership with IU Health. Then-dean Jay L. Hess said the school had not built new classroom space in Indianapolis since 1959. The release calls the project the largest in the school's 120-year history.
The Scope as Filed
The first three floors were planned for education. The ground floor carries a large atrium with spaces for small learning communities, classrooms, lecture halls and a cafe. The two floors above hold more classrooms, a surgical skills center, simulation spaces, a library, practice exam rooms and an anatomy lab. The base was designed with elements of IU's limestone buildings in Bloomington and the brick accents of the medical school buildings at IUPUI.
Eight floors of research and office space rise above the academic base. The tower was designed in glass with energy efficiency as a stated aim. An underground tunnel was planned to connect the building to Goodman Hall and the Neuroscience Research Building to the north.
Browning Day of Indianapolis and Perkins & Will of Chicago designed the building. The IU Board of Trustees approved the design in February 2022.
The Money
IU Health contributed $145 million of the $230 million cost. IU Health President and CEO Dennis Murphy said at the groundbreaking that the investment supported medical education and research on the shared campus. Retired manufacturing executive Dave Roberts and his wife Susan committed $10 million for neurodegenerative research, and the release counts their gifts and commitments to the school at nearly $15 million in total. Cardiologist Dr. Diane K. Werth gave $5 million for the building's anatomy lab, per Inside INdiana Business.
Delivery Status
The 2022 release forecast completion in November 2024. The building opened in June 2025. Inside INdiana Business reported the opening on 26 June 2025, with an open house that Thursday afternoon and classes starting a few weeks later. Medical school classes began on 4 August 2025. The school's news page for the build still carries the 2022 forecast.
Inside INdiana Business gives the address as 350 W. 14th St. and the floor area as 326,000 square feet. The 2022 release gives 326,200 gross square feet.
The building took over as the school's primary classroom and education facility. It relocated from the long-standing home on the IU Indianapolis campus to sit closer to the IU Health teaching hospital. Research labs and workspaces, a library, an anatomy lab and a virtual surgery lab occupy the building, with the first three floors given to education and the next eight to research. A medical simulation center has yet to open inside the building. No date for that move has been published, and Inside INdiana Business placed the operation at Fairbanks Hall on 10th Street.
The Campus Around the Building
The medical education building is the first delivery on the wider campus. Inside INdiana Business puts the campus at 44 acres, from 16th Street to 12th Street and from Capitol Avenue to Interstate 65, about eight square blocks. IU Health is building an 864-bed hospital complex there at a reported cost of $4.3 billion, consolidating Methodist and University hospitals.
Three published dates cover the hospital. Inside INdiana Business reports late 2027. IU Health answers its own opening question with December 2027, and its project update moves the inpatient opening to the fourth quarter of 2027.
IU Health lists the other campus buildings. The Medical Office Building is a five-story mixed-use building for offices, clinical space and retail. The South Support Building will house material management and loading docks, serve as the primary parking area and include bicycle and electric charging stations, connected to the hospital by an elevated walkway. A central utility plant supports the hospital's energy needs. The project fast facts count 864 inpatient rooms, 50 operating rooms and 110 care spaces in the emergency department.
What the Record Does Not Show
The 2022 figure of $230 million stands as the last published cost for the education building. No source gives a date for the simulation center's opening. No source gives a cost update for either project.
The school's 2025-2026 fact sheet counts 802 medical students at the Indianapolis campus inside a statewide body of 1,459, and 1,448 residents and fellows across 121 accredited programmes. The quotes carried above belong to the office-holders of 2022 and 2025.