Groundbreaking Development

The U broke ground last fall on the new home for the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine. The $185 million facility has been made possible, in part, by funds from a landmark gift of $110 million from the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation and the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation. The gift provides support for not only the building but also medical education programs and cardiovascular research. 

The 185,000-square-foot building will become the hub of the U’s nationally recognized health sciences campus. 

“The incredible impact of the University of Utah’s health sciences program in education, research, and care across the Intermountain West is a source of great pride for the entire state,” says Utah Governor Spencer J. Cox. “This new facility will make a major difference in our ability to address the growing need for top-tier doctors in the state, especially in our rural areas.”

University of Utah Health is the only academic medical center in the Mountain West, providing high quality patient care for nearly 10 percent of the geographic area of the continental United States. The construction of the medical education building is expected to drive the most critical evolution in the medical school’s history and will be used across education, research, and clinical care.

“I have long believed that no state or region can become truly great without a world-class medical center at its nucleus,” says Spencer F. Eccles BS’56, namesake of the school and chairman and CEO of both the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation and the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation. “We hope this seminal grant—the largest ever awarded by our foundations—will help ensure the university not only provides the highest quality medical education for the doctors who serve Utah and the entire Intermountain West, but also furthers the excellence of health care for all our citizens and impacts the future of medicine through its groundbreaking research.”