About the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research
The Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR) at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison embraces a new way of doing science.
Construction began in August 2005 on the $134 million Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research, formerly known as the Interdisciplinary Research Complex (IRC).
The building is designed to encourage unique gatherings of scientists from different disciplines to address urgent health problems of common concern.
The Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research is a three-phase project that ultimately will consist of three towers.
First Tower Focuses on Cancer Research
The first tower contains the headquarters of the UW Carbone Cancer Center. Entire floors will be dedicated to prostate and breast cancer research as well as hematologic and pediatric oncology.
Imaging sciences also are featured in this tower, with medical physics occupying the lower level and radiology occupying the first floor. The base of the second tower will house a vivarium.
Second Tower Under Construction
With the first tower and the base of the second completed, the UW School of Medicine and Public Health has turned its full attention to WIMR Phase II. A major capital campaign has been launched. The second tower will include seven new laboratory floors built upon the existing foundations constructed during WIMR Phase I.
A key component of this project is one floor dedicated to a new Eye Research Institute, where basic and clinical scientists will be located together, thereby enhancing collaborations and translation of results to patients.
The remaining floors of the second tower will include research programs in neuroscience, cardiovascular science, regenerative medicine and broadly focused molecular medicine research.
These programs will synergistically benefit from the shared resources of animal care, imaging science and proteomics developed as part of WIMR I. Taken together, WIMR Towers I and II represent an entirely new mode of scientific investigation for the School of Medicine and Public Health and related faculty.
The entire three-tower complex is expected to be complete about 2015.
Art and Science Meet
The first tower incorporates art with the sciences. The sail-like window wall is studded with metallic "sparkle strips," and its subtle linear grid represents the underpinnings for tomotherapy, the cancer treatment invented by researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Inside, there is a hanging aluminum sculpture by Cliff Garten, which extends through floors seven through three. Outdoors, the new healing garden marks the place where the research tower, the hospital and the Health Sciences Learning Center come together.
WIMR will be the centerpiece of interdisciplinary research at the school. With its proximity to University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, WIMR will allow basic scientists and clinicians to collaborate in unprecedented ways as they strive to improve patients' health.
The WIMR architect of record is the Zimmerman Design Group of Milwaukee; the design architect is Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc. (HOK) of St. Louis. The Boldt Company of Appleton, Wis., serves as construction manager for the project. The UW School of Medicine and Public Health's Facilities Management Department is overseeing the construction.