May 10, 2003

BUFFALO, N.Y. – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today unveiled the future site of the Center for Structural Biology at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus today and announced that he will fight for federal funds to make the $21 million project a reality. Schumer, joined by officials from the City of Buffalo and the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, also celebrated the City's approval of the site for the future building.

"Buffalo has always been renowned for its fine architectural heritage," Schumer said. "This building will become a landmark and will continue Buffalo's architectural tradition into the 21st Century."

The building will house the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, home to Buffalo's Nobel Laureate Dr. Herbert A. Hauptman. It will become part of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus being planned for downtown Buffalo, which will include Hauptman-Woodward, the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, the University at Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, Kaleida Health and the Buffalo Medical Group Foundation. The building is being designed by acclaimed architect Mehrdad Yazdani of Cannon Design in Los Angeles, and Hauptman-Woodward officials anticipate groundbreaking this June, with an opening planned for July 2004.

"This is not an announcement of another study or another pie-in-the-sky plan for downtown," Schumer said. "If things go as planned, we should see a shovel in the ground this summer and a new building in the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus by 2004."

Schumer said the new Center for Structural Biology will bring new jobs to the City of Buffalo, revitalize the downtown core, be at the epicenter of cutting-edge scientific research, and help to revitalize the Fruit Belt neighborhood surrounding the proposed Medical Campus.

Schumer was joined by Ellicott Common Councilmember Brian Davis, Hauptman-Woodward President and Nobel Laureate Dr. Herbert A. Hauptman and Hauptman-Woodward Executive Director George DeTitta.