PHOENIX, AZ — Arizona State University (ASU) announces plans for an estimated 200,000-square-foot building that will serve as ASU Health’s new headquarters. Sited on a city-owned vacant lot between 4th and 5th streets and Fillmore and Pierce streets, the multistory School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering facility, designed by CO Architects in collaboration with DFDG Architecture and being constructed by McCarthy Building Companies, will join the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix and several biotech research companies at the downtown Phoenix Bioscience Core.
“This endeavor is more than a building, and this is much more than a medical school,” ASU President Michael Crow said. “This will be the headquarters of ASU Health, a new hub of innovation, teaching, and learning to enhance health outcomes for the people of Arizona.”
CO Architects has been active in Phoenix’s Bioscience Core for almost two decades, having designed two of the precinct’s early buildings for University of Arizona’s health sciences and biomedical research programs.
“We’re leveraging our vast experience in Arizona, and in Phoenix specifically, for the new ASU Health facility,” said Jenna Knudsen, FAIA, Managing Principal of CO Architects.
“We’ve been challenged to design a facility for emerging generations of physicians and health professionals who will embrace the latest technologies and research in their practices,” added Jonathan Kanda, FAIA, Principal for Medical Education at CO Architects.
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“Our architecture firms recently collaborated on the ASU Health Futures Building and the adjacent Mayo Clinic Integrated Education & Research Building to integrate medical research and educational training in north Phoenix," DFDG President Darrin Orndorff, AIA, said. "That momentum will carry over to this project, the latest addition to greater Phoenix’s health sciences construction boom.”
Following recent trends in Phoenix and across the country, the new ASU Health School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering building will have a clinical partner. In addition to housing ASU’s first-ever Phoenix medical school offering MD degrees and hosting select existing programs from the Health Solutions and Nursing schools, the building will include space for ASU’s clinical affiliate, HonorHealth.
The new facility will also accommodate two new programs, expanding ASU Health’s multidiscipline curricula. The School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering will teach future physicians how to improve patient care by blending medicine, engineering, technology, and humanities. ASU Health’s new School of Technology for Public Health will focus on the integration of digital technology and data-driven decisions, aiming to improve local public health.
Facility features are projected to include virtual anatomy and clinical skills laboratories, exam rooms, classrooms, study spaces, administrative offices, and a simulation center with mock operating and emergency rooms. Further, the new ASU Health headquarters will offer community-facing programs so that members of the public can interface with technology-enabled information on health-related issues such as immunizations.
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“ASU’s forward-thinking approach to preparing future medical and health service professionals and advancing community health education is plainly demonstrated by this progressive project,” said Carlos Diaz, Vice President of Operations at McCarthy Building Companies. “We are eager to bring together our national expertise in simulation lab construction and our local team’s demonstrated competence on complex work sites to collaborate with these exceptional design partners and support ASU’s vision.”
The ASU Health School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering building is designed to help address workforce shortages while improving public health outcomes in Phoenix and beyond. According to the mayor’s office, the new facility is projected to generate approximately 200,000 new jobs and $19 billion in statewide economic impact during the next decade. Preliminary sitework has begun, and construction is starting in early 2026. ASU Health plans to commence classes in the new building in fall 2028.
In addition to design firms CO Architects and DFDG Architecture and the project’s general contractor McCarthy Building Companies, the project team includes Meyer Borgman Johnson (structural engineering), Spectrum Engineers (MEP engineering), Dibble Engineers (civil engineering), TrueForm Landscape Architecture Studio (landscape architecture), Bowman Fire & Life Safety (safety consultant), WSP USA Buildings (sustainability consultant), and NV5 (AV/IT/security consultant).
