TCU's School of Medicine will occupy the building on the bottom left. Those others surrounding it are part of an expanded master plan.
City and university leaders, as well as students and faculty, gathered at the northeast corner of South Henderson and West Rosedale streets late Monday afternoon marking the announcement that the vacant lot in the heart of the Medical District in the Near Southside will soon be home to the burgeoning TCU School of Medicine.
TCU will break ground on the four-story, approximately 100,000-square-foot building late spring or early summer, Chancellor Victor J. Boschini said, with plans to welcome students there in 2024.
The building, termed the “academic hub for 240 medical students,” will house classrooms, labs, and offices. Additional facilities are part of the master plan for the 5.3-acre lot, which backs up to Trimble Tech’s baseball field.
Officials declined to release cost estimates. Linbeck Group will be the general contractor, officials said. Architects are CO Architects and Hoefer Welker.
“This represents a unique expansion of our 300-acre main campus,” Boschini said. “I think this will impact our students, more than anything, and that’s what this is about. Right now we’re program rich and space poor. This building will match the quality of our program.”
The medical school was created in 2015, a collaborative project with University of North Texas Health Science Center. The first class of students, which began study in July 2019, will graduate in 2023. The school’s fourth class will begin in July.
TCU and the Health Science Center ended their partnership earlier this year. As part of that separation agreement, TCU was leasing space at the Health Science Center. However, Boschini said on Monday that the School of Medicine will leave Health Science Center’s campus on Montgomery Street this summer, moving its base to the International Plaza in southwest Fort Worth while the new building is being constructed.
The School of Medicine has also launched graduate medical education collaborations with JPS Health Network, Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center Fort Worth, and Texas Health Resources.
Officials said the School of Medicine was created with an innovative, empathetic-based curriculum that is designed to allow a physician “to walk in a patient’s shoes.”
“The TCU School of Medicine campus is an investment in the long-term health of our community, training, and educating future physicians, many of whom will remain in the area expanding our physician workforce and fulfilling an important need for our city and state,” said Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker.
“This expansion of TCU's campus to the Near Southside represents a significant contribution to the Fort Worth economy and job growth. This — paired with the TCU School of Medicine's transformational impact on health care — ensures that Fort Worth's future remains vital and vibrant.”
Added Boschini: “The TCU School of Medicine is having a truly exponential impact on our community. Our Horned Frog medical students are benefitting from an exceptional educational experience, the vast clinical expertise and growing medical industry in our area. The TCU School of Medicine is already contributing to the health of our neighbors and the greater good.”