North Carolina Construction News staff writer
Gilbane and the University of South Carolina marked a construction milestone this month with the topping out of the university’s new School of Medicine building at the Health Sciences Campus in Columbia’s BullStreet District.
A topping out ceremony traditionally marks the placement of a building’s final structural steel beam. USC students, faculty and members of the project team signed two steel beams that will be permanently installed and displayed inside the facility.
“We are proud to partner with the University of South Carolina in delivering their new School of Medicine, a significant investment by USC in innovative research and medical education, and the first building on its new Health Sciences Campus” said John Keegan, senior vice president at Gilbane Development. “Though public-private partnerships such as this, Gilbane is helping to transform university campuses across the country, developing and building everything from academic and research spaces to student housing to auxiliary facilities.”
The $300 million project is a 330,000-square-foot medical education and research building being developed through a public-private partnership between USC and Gilbane, which is overseeing planning, design, development and construction. The facility is scheduled to open in August 2027.
Construction began in February 2025. The building is the first major facility on USC’s planned Health Sciences Campus and is part of the university’s broader USC Next master plan, a 10-year framework guiding capital investments and campus development through 2034.
According to the project team, the facility will house classrooms, research laboratories, medical simulation spaces, a health sciences library and a range of indoor and outdoor collaboration areas intended to support medical education and interdisciplinary research.
The project is located within the BullStreet District, a large mixed-use redevelopment north of downtown Columbia that includes residential, office, retail and institutional uses.
Gilbane is serving as development and construction lead on the project. Other members of the project team include BOUDREAUX as lead architect in collaboration with SLAM Collaborative as design architect, Cumming and Brownstone Construction Group as construction management partners, and Restoration 52 as development consultant.
“For inspiration, the USC School of Medicine Building at the Health Sciences Campus looks back to the legacy of thoughtfully conceived architecture and outdoor spaces on the main campus while simultaneously looking forward to establishing an ecosystem for sustaining state-of-the-art health sciences education and research,” said University Architect Derek Gruner. “Education and interdisciplinary research will be combined under one roof so that each will engage with and contribute to the other through extraordinary classrooms, well-equipped simulation spaces, wet and dry labs, numerous study environments, and dramatic public spaces.”
University officials said the building is intended to consolidate medical education and research functions that are currently spread across multiple locations, while supporting future growth in health sciences programs.