President Michel Sleiman and American University of Beirut officials laid the cornerstone to a new medical building Tuesday, inaugurating a facility that will significantly expand the offerings of the AUB Medical Center. “We congratulate the university on its new center,” Sleiman said.
The Academic and Clinical Center, located at the intersection of Maamari and Abdul-Aziz streets, will include psychiatry, oncology, ophthalmology and pain center facilities as well as a number of other new clinics and education spaces.
Sleiman and university officials set down the cornerstone blocks of the center on the site across from a coffee shop that will soon have five levels of underground parking and stories of advanced medical offices.
Computer renderings of the new center show an angular glass and concrete building marked by hundreds of slender windows, accented with tan wood colors. The dozens of new offices are to be built with a muted, modern look.
In addition to increasing the types of medical offerings, the new center will focus on expanding the university’s research and education programs. Levels of the new center will feature clinical research and human protection research facilities
Other floors of the building will include a wing of a cancer institute as well as a heart center aimed at treating the increasing instances of cardiovascular diseases, strokes as well as the massive number of diabetes and hypertension cases in the region.
The Middle East has one of the highest rates of obesity and obesity related complications in the world.
There will also be otolaryngology and pulmonary clinics as well as a number of other academic offices.
“At AUB we are building on more than 100 years of experience, teaching, research and medical care in order to do the same in and for Lebanon,” said Philip Khoury, Head of the AUB Board of Trustees.
Other parts of the project include constructing a new administration building, new family and student medicine clinics and a massive new medical center with a 600-bed capacity
By the time the revamping of the medical complex is complete, the university is slated to have opened the regions first Multiple Sclerosis Center and a number of other regional firsts.
The university launched a $400 million endowment campaign to fulfill its 2020 medical center goals.
The Daily Star
26 September
