What a difference a year makes. Since the announcement in February 2014 that UHealth – University of Miami Health System was planning to build its first clinical space on the University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus, there has been a whirlwind of activity along Ponce de Leon Boulevard. Eight months later, during a ceremonial groundbreaking at the construction site, UM officials announced that The Lennar Foundation, the charitable arm of The Lennar Corporation, was making a lead gift of $50 million to name the UHealth at Coral Gables ambulatory facility The Lennar Foundation Medical Center.More than 445 construction piles have been installed as part of the foundation of the 200,000-square-foot outpatient facility, which will deliver premier UHealth services, including specialty care by the renowned Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, ranked the No. 1 eye hospital in the nation for the past 11 years. Patients also will receive primary and specialized care for a broad spectrum of health needs including women’s health, sports medicine, physical therapy, spine, heart, memory disorders, dermatology, diagnostic imaging, radiation oncology, and other UHealth subspecialties.
“Building this UHealth facility will be a benefit to people living and working in Coral Gables and surrounding communities,” said Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the Miller School of Medicine, and CEO of UHealth. “UHealth provides comprehensive diagnostics that are unparalleled in the region, to more accurately diagnose a condition and deliver a precise therapy for that diagnosis. With this center we are bringing our medical expertise directly to the people in this area.”As construction of the LEED-certified outpatient facility along Ponce de Leon Boulevard takes shape, UM students and faculty already have experienced one big shift. A familiar stretch of Dickinson Drive has been moved northeast to intersect with Ponce de Leon closer to the BankUnited Center. The new center, designed by architects Perkins+Will, will be located a short walk from the University Metrorail station and will be connected to an adjacent 1,000-space parking garage by a covered pedestrian bridge.
Future plans include moving the UM Student Health Center from the academic core of the campus to the new UHealth at Coral Gables facility, giving students convenient access to UHealth medical specialties under one roof.
