Construction work on a new School of Medicine building is continuing to make progress.

A large tower crane has been stationed at the construction site on the east side of campus in the last couple months as crews put up walls, columns, and components of the building structure.

“The construction team has been working very hard to get the building out of the ground, but everything is rapidly progressing now that we are working on the vertical elements of the structure,” said Mihai Gavan, a senior project manager with UCR’s Planning, Design, and Construction department. “It is very exciting to see how the building changes every day.”

Work on the project began last fall and is anticipated to be completed by summer 2023.

The School of Medicine’s Education Building II, or SOM Ed II, will have about 57,000 assignable square feet within 90,000 gross square feet. The design features an urban downtown theme that includes outdoor seating, terraces, and landscaping that will complement the existing buildings around it. 

The five-level building is the School of Medicine’s largest expansion since it opened in 2013 and will allow the school to increase the number of students trained. 

The project is the first building designed specifically for the school’s needs and features state-of-the-art learning facilities that support modern medical education. It includes lecture halls, classrooms, meeting rooms for student functions, study space, offices, and other support space.