UC San Francisco, Joan & Sanford I. Weill Neurosciences Building // Mark Cavagnero Associates

Text description provided by the architects.

UCSF Joan and Sanford I. Weill Neurosciences Building opened today at UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay campus. Named in honor of the Weills, who made a transformational gift of $185M, the new building, designed by Mark Cavagnero Associates (Cavagnero), unites the departments of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences–Neurology, Neurological Surgery, Psychiatry and Behavioral Study, Neurodegenerative Diseases, and the Neuroscience Graduate Program—in one home for the first time.

The Weills’ generosity marked the largest gift in UCSF history at the time, and was among the largest gifts ever made to support the neurosciences in the United States. By integrating psychiatry research into the neurosciences, the UCSF Weill Neurosciences Building will lead to breakthroughs in mental health and accelerate new pathways for solving conditions of the human brain.

The new six-story building is designed by Cavagnero as a manifestation of the ambitious, world-changing research and treatments that are envisioned within it. The new building makes UCSF’s Mission Bay campus one of the largest neuroscience complexes in the world, as it joins the adjacent Sandler Neurosciences Center and Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Hall, expanding the capacity of UCSF’s unparalleled research and care.

“The Weills’ generosity combined with UCSF’s expertise redefines interdisciplinary research and patient care, forever changing the way UCSF’s faculty works and engages with the public,” said Mark Cavagnero, Founding Principal of Cavagnero. “Our design challenges perceptions of clinical spaces as it accommodates both scientific precision, to meet the exacting demands of the different departments it holds, and patient care, prioritizing light, warmth, and openness to create a space where patients can feel calm and connected with nature and where faculty want to work.

Life-changing advances will be made inside the building, and we’re thrilled to support the discoveries that UCSF makes possible.”

In addition to creating a new home for the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, the building features the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, a multidisciplinary research center for the effective treatments of Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders; the new UCSF Global Brain Health Institute, which aims to reduce the scale and impact of dementia globally by training and supporting the next generation of leaders to translate research into effective policy and practice; and the Weill Neurohub, a joint research network launched by UC Berkeley, UCSF, and the University of Washington to dissolve institutional boundaries and stimulate new cross-disciplinary collaborations in neuroscience.

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