What Will $1,200,000,000 Buy BJC?

The BJC Healthcare/Washington University Medical Center is planning for another decade of incredible growth. The grandiose sounding number of $1,200,000,000 doesn't buy as much as you may think, but it will continue the rapid transformation of the medical campus. A similar number was spent over the past 10 years to build BioMed21, EPNEC, Farrell Learning and Teaching Center, two towers fronting Kingshighway, the new genome sequencing center and more.

What will $1.2B look like? Little has been confirmed, but the continued revitalization effort will initially focus on the northwest corner of campus and buildings along Kingshighway. Queeny Tower will be demolished and replaced.

For anyone unsure, it is necessary that BJC build adjacent to existing hospital assets. A surface parking lot two blocks from the existing emergency room is not a potential site for a hospital bed tower. Proximity is required. This means that demolition will be necessary and may mean that BJC will continue to build up. At the same time, hospital technology and design has changed significantly since Queeny Tower was built in 1965.