BJC HealthCare and the Washington University School of Medicine plan to build an office building of 12 to 14 floors at their growing medical campus in the Central West End neighborhood.
The structure, under design by Christner Inc., will go up on the site of the Storz office building next to the Central West End MetroLink station, university officials said Wednesday. Demolition of the Storz building should take place this summer with the intent to open the new building in two years, officials said.
The building’s cost has yet to be determined, but it will provide about 40,000 square feet of space per floor on as many as 14 floors, said Melissa Hopkins, the medical school’s assistant vice chancellor and assistant dean of facilities operations.
Its name is yet to be chosen but the project’s working title is Coal Bunker Headquarters. Before the Storz building opened in 1946, the site was used to store coal needed to fuel the nearby power plant. At the time, MetroLink tracks were part of a freight line over which coal was delivered by rail to the plant, which now uses natural gas to produce electricity.
People are also reading…
The building will accommodate BJC and university medical offices housed now at the Barnes-Jewish Center for Outpatient Health and elsewhere within the medical campus. Officials said relocating offices will permit more medical school faculty space and clinic growth at the existing outpatient health building.
Working with Christner on the new building is Clayco Corp., which will be the construction management firm.
BJC and the medical school are in the middle of a billion dollar renewal of their 16-block campus in the Central West End. Projects include a pair of 12-story medical buildings along Kingshighway, plus replacement of Queeny Tower, which opened in the early 1960s.
