Next phase of Columbia’s BullStreet District growth is here: USC’s new medical school

Alexa Jurado
·3 min read

The University of South Carolina is moving forward with the next step of its health sciences campus in Columbia’s BullStreet District: a new School of Medicine.

Slated as the first phase of the university’s $300 million investment planned for 16 acres in the northeast corner of the district, the center is “the most ambitious single project in our university’s history,” USC architect Derek Gruner said.

Initially planned as two separate buildings, the medical facility will consist of one building that will serve as a “symbiotic” space for education and research, Gruner said.

“I think that will be one of the characteristics that really distinguishes the University of South Carolina’s School of Medicine, is ... inseparable relationships between the academic experience and research,” Gruner said.

The 320,000-square-foot building will stand between Cooper Drive and Harden Street. With its brick and limestone, the building will embrace the historic nature of USC’s campus, Gruner said. Visitors will be greeted with a large courtyard and rooftop terraces. The building will feature classrooms, student collaboration spaces and a cafe.

“This first building is really considered the flagship and the heart of the campus,” Gruner said.

Plans for the University of South Carolina’s new School of Medicine building have come into focus.
Plans for the University of South Carolina’s new School of Medicine building have come into focus.

The university expects to break ground on the School of Medicine by the end of 2024, with an anticipated opening in the fall of 2027. The medical school is currently housed at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs near the Dorn Veterans Hospital on Garners Ferry Road, but the lease is set to expire in 2030.

The new medical school, university spokesman Jeff Stensland said, will focus on interdisciplinary research, roping in disciplines like nursing, pharmacy, social work and others. And it may support larger medical school graduating classes. While the university graduates classes of 100 now, it will soon have the potential to graduate 130.

“The health challenges in South Carolina are great and many,” Stensland said.

USC began setting aside funding for the health sciences campus in 2017. Of the $300 million appropriated for the project, about a third comes from the university and another third from the state legislature. The final third will be taken on as debt.

Plans for the University of South Carolina’s new School of Medicine building have come into focus.
Plans for the University of South Carolina’s new School of Medicine building have come into focus.

In a USC news release last year, Robert Hughes, president of Hughes Development Corporation, master developer of the BullStreet District, said he was excited to welcome USC to the district.

“All of the students, faculty, and staff will be a great addition to the vibrancy of the district,” Hughes said. “The training and research conducted here will extend throughout the community and state to produce a better quality of life for our people through better health care. We are honored to be a part of it.”

The USC School of Medicine will join the burgeoning district. BullStreet, the former site of a state mental hospital, is already the home of Columbia’s minor league baseball team, the Fireflies, at Segra Park, as well as numerous apartment buildings, retailers and restaurants.

Now that the USC Board of Trustees has approved the plans, a number of state groups must sign off on the project before the university breaks ground. They include the S.C. Commission on Higher Education, the Joint Bond Review Committee and the Fiscal Accountability Authority. And given the support the university has already received from they state, Gruner said, full approval is expected.

“It’s really a big deal for the whole state of South Carolina,” Stensland said.