Riverside, Calif. – Barnhart Balfour Beatty has completed construction of the $36-million School of Medicine Research Building for the University of California Riverside. This is the first building for the new UCR School of Medicine, which will become the first public medical school in California in more than 40 years.

The three-story, 60,000-square-foot building incorporates laboratory environments for biomedical research, including a biosafety level-3 suite, and flexible support spaces for imaging and instructional needs. The project will qualify for LEED™ Silver sustainability certification, meeting the standards set by the US Green Building Council, the first LEED™-rated building on the UCR campus.

G. Richard Olds, M.D., the founding Dean, said the new medical school is being built in a region with one of the state of California’s lowest doctor-to-resident ratios. “Inland Southern California’s population will grow by an estimated 24% over the next decade and many of the 44% of current physicians who are age 55 and older will retire, further reducing health care access,” he said. Projected to enroll its first class in August 2013, the UCR School of Medicine will be turning out as many as 100 medical school graduates a year. The training at UCR will emphasize preventative care and health education, recruit students locally, and encourage graduates to stay and practice in the region.

The architect on the project was SRG Partnership of Portland.

Barnhart Balfour Beatty staff working on the project included Layne Arthur, vice president; Anthony Mardirosian, project manager; Glen Farlow and Tony Spagnolo, superintendents; Eric Sierra, senior field engineer; and Kimberly McDonnell, project accountant.

About Barnhart Balfour Beatty

Barnhart Balfour Beatty is a full-service general building, engineering and construction management firm. The company (License #439407) is one of the largest educational builders in the country, has worked on military construction projects for nearly 30 years, and has built award-winning projects for local governments and the healthcare industry. Barnhart Balfour Beatty is a member of the Balfour Beatty Construction team, a leader in the U.S. commercial construction industry for 77 years and one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For® in the U.S.