By SUSAN JONES
Over the past several months, Pitt’s Health Sciences have been working to develop a master plan for the six schools’ physical space.
“The objective of the Health Sciences Master Plan is to take a thoughtful, strategic look at how our physical footprint supports our mission in education, research, and clinical care,” two Health Sciences administrators — Jeffrey Bees, vice chancellor for finance and resources, and Jaime Cerilli, associate vice chancellor for strategic space planning and management — said in an email.
“Over the past several decades, our real estate portfolio has grown in response to immediate and often urgent needs. While that approach allowed us to keep pace with growth, it hasn’t always resulted in the most efficient use of space,” the two administrators said. “Programs are sometimes dispersed across multiple locations in ways that don’t naturally foster collaboration, and that can limit opportunities for interdisciplinary work.”
The six schools occupy five primary buildings: School of Medicine in Scaife Hall; Dental Medicine and Pharmacy in Salk Hall; School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences in the new building at Fifth and Halket; Nursing in Victoria Hall; and Public Health at 130 DeSoto St.
In addition, there are offices scattered throughout Oakland and beyond, including in the Biomedical Sciences Towers; the Murdoch Building on Forbes Avenue; the Medical Arts Building and Kaufmann Medical Building on Fifth Avenue; Schenley Place on Bayard Street; the Assembly on Centre Avenue; Bridgeside Point along the Monongahela River; and at several UPMC hospitals — Presbyterian, Children’s, Mercy, Montefiore and Hillman Cancer Center.
In total, the master plan is looking at 54 buildings — 25 owned by Pitt; 17 leased from UPMC and 12 leased from external landlords. The team has toured more than 4 million square feet of space to make its assessment.
The process started in April 2025 with a request for proposals for a company to help with the master plan. In June 2025, HOK, a global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm with 27 offices on three continents, was awarded the contract, and the work on the master plan kicked off the first week of July 2025.
More than 160 meetings have been held with stakeholders. The effort has been led by the Office of Space Management, Health Sciences team and the Pitt Office of Planning, Design and Construction, in partnership with consultants at HOK.
In addition, the team has met multiple times with every department in the School of Medicine and with each of the other five schools of the Health Sciences, with representatives bringing consolidated feedback from their broader constituencies
“Through this master plan, we are stepping back to evaluate our entire portfolio with a focus on efficiency, consolidation, and long-term sustainability,” Bees and Cerilli said. “We are examining how we can reduce unnecessary space, bring programs closer together where it makes sense, and better align our facilities with how we work today and how we expect to work in the future.”
They noted that this effort is “especially important given the funding uncertainty that emerged early in 2025 and continues to shape our planning environment. By using our space more effectively, we can position the school to be more resilient and adaptable. At the same time, several of our buildings are in critical need of improvement or replacement. The master plan will provide a roadmap for how best to modernize or replace those facilities to support high-quality research and education for years to come.”
Currently, the work is focused on space, which will help determine where efficiencies in the overall footprint can be achieved. “Our primary focus has been on research laboratory and office space, as those categories represent roughly two-thirds of our total space today,” the two administrators said. “As the work has progressed, we have begun to coalesce around potential strategies for arranging programs in ways that strengthen both our educational and research enterprises.”
Two focus groups were formed to provide structured input: a Council of Reference composed of department and school leaders, and a working group that includes facilities managers, researchers and others closely involved in space utilization.
The team anticipates sharing draft materials with the focus groups in the coming weeks to gather additional input before finalizing the plan. The final plan should be finished in May. At that time, meetings will be scheduled with Health Science senior leadership, administration and the committees to present the plans and review feedback.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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