USC’s School of Medicine moving to Bull Street District, set to open late 2027

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — Popular places like Segra Park and Iron Hill Brewery within the up-and-coming Bull Street District will have a new neighbor in just a few years.

University of South Carolina School of Medicine’s new 320,000 square foot academic and research building will be located between Harden Street Extension and Page Ellington Park within the Bull Street District.

The new building will replace USC’s current medical school facility next to the Department of Veterans Affairs campus on Garners Ferry Road.

The site has been occupied since 1980 but with its lease being up in 2030, the university is ready to move on from renting the location.

“It’s exciting if you’re an architect, this is really exciting. It’s one of those projects that comes along once or twice in a lifetime,” says Chief Architect on the project Derek Gruner.

Initial groundbreaking is set for the Fall of 2024 — with the new building being ready for students in the Fall of 2027.

“What we have is this opportunity with this site, it’s almost like a blank canvas in a way. We can really create a perfect thing that is uncompromised here, and make all the flows logical and interdependent on one another,” says Gruner.

Numerous collaborative meetings were held with stakeholders allowing them time to imagine better ways of doing things within the school of medicine and then designing a building that enables them to achieve those best possible results.

“It’s a very complex program, relative to a lot of buildings that a person would encounter today whether it be an office building or department building. This is a complicated organism,” says Gruner.

The $300 million project includes much more than classrooms — with an anatomy lab, ultrasound lab, a simulation center, anesthesiology department and more.

Gruner calls it a “one-stop-shop for academic medical teaching,” and says placing it within the Bull Street District makes it even more exciting.

“You get all this energy and vitality that’s going on at Bull Street and you have the wonderful park that really acts like the front yard in front of the school of medicine that our students will be able to enjoy. So, you combine all of those things and it’s kind of hard to imagine a better site,” says Gruner.

Plans for four additional health science buildings next to the new School of Medicine are already underway.