Late last month, on January 18th, 2024, WashU opened a new neuroscience research center, the Jeffrey T. Fort Neuroscience Research Building. The building in question is located in the Central West End, which is across Forest Park from WashU’s main Danforth Campus and is very close to the world-renowned Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The building is being viewed as having the potential to be the foremost neuroscience research center in the world, with Governor Parsons (who was present at the opening) stating that “we’re now going to lead the world in neuroscience research.”
The Jeffrey T. Fort Research Building, as stated in WashU’s announcement, is 11 stories tall and has 609,000 square feet of floor space. To put this gargantuan size in perspective, the world’s first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building of Chicago (built in 1881), was originally only ten stories tall, the new neuroscience research building is not only a behemoth in its size but also a veritable skyscraper. Furthermore, as the building has a floor space of 609,000 square feet, it technically has more than Windsor Castle, which has a square footage of 484,000. Furthermore, the design of the research building is also very efficient, containing a “serendipity of geography,” that will promote collaboration between scientists.
As can be guessed, the new neuroscience research building was very expensive and was not built by WashU money alone. The name of the building (as is mentioned in WashU’s announcement) is derived from a longtime patron of WashU, Jeffrey Fort, and has a large lobby named after and dedicated to the McDonnell family. Given the importance and neuroscience research in overcoming deadly illnesses such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, these donations on the part of Mr. Fort and the McDonnell family represent a great act of charity towards not only the university and St. Louis but also to the whole of medicine.