The Joan and Joel Smilow Research Center facilitated the realization of New York University School of Medicine’s strategic plan to recruit 50 new principal investigators whose laboratory groups would engage in a wide range of biomedical research including cancer genetics, neuroscience, cardiovascular biology, and infectious disease. A key goal for the project was for research to be thematically based, interdisciplinary, and collaborative.

Following a feasibility and programming study, Mitchell Giurgola designed a new 235,000 square-foot building on the eastern side of the campus. This site selection afforded dramatic views of the East River and enabled the creation of a new courtyard plaza, a significant amenity for the school’s dense urban campus. On the eleven research floors of the Smilow Center an open-plan laboratory design encourages interaction and collaboration among lab groups and maximizes the efficiency of the small footprint. The building also contains an animal facility, conference rooms, and various shared “core” facilities such as a fully certified BSL-3 facility and other highly specialized laboratory support functions.