The Biomedical / Biological Sciences Research Building is the University of Kentucky’s major new home for science on campus. Designed by VSBA in association with A. M. Kinney and HERA, the building is the first increment of our 2001 plan for UK’s Limestone-Virginia precinct — a burgeoning research, education, and health care center.
The facility has an open plan design to encourage interdisciplinary and collaborative work while providing the flexibility to adapt with evolving research. By carefully siting the facility, we tried to nurture strong links between the academic campus and Medical Center campuses and provide a framework for future building.
The BBSRB houses 400 faculty, staff, and students from the College of Medicine’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry; the Institute for Molecular Medicine; the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center; and the Drug Abuse Treatment Research Program. The lab also contains conference rooms, computer labs, storage spaces, amenities such as a café, and environments tailored for specific experimentation conditions. There is also a pedestrian bridge to the adjacent Medical Center to connect with future development and parking.
UK President Lee T. Todd, Jr. said the BBSRB “represents the University of Kentucky’s commitment to becoming a top-20 public research university by solving some of Kentucky’s greatest problems through research. In the most literal sense this is a laboratory for new ideas and discoveries, and is part of a promise to improve Kentuckians’ quality of life.”