Baylor College of Medicine in Houston has announced a $30 million combined gift from the Cullen Foundation, the Cullen Trust for Health Care, and the Cullen Trust for Higher Education for construction of a medical education and research building.

The gift will support construction of the 503,000-square-foot Lillie and Roy Cullen Tower, which is the first phase of Baylor’s planned 800,000-square-foot Health Sciences Park. The tower, scheduled to open in 2026, will offer space for medical education and research including small-group and studio classrooms, a large-capacity, high-tech theater-style event space, a state-of-the-art anatomy lab, teaching labs, and a simulation center. To date, Baylor has raised $100 million toward its $150 million philanthropic goal for the project. Additional lead gifts include $12 million from the DeBakey Medical Foundation, $10 million from the Huffington Foundation, and more than $45 million from members of Baylor’s board of trustees and other community donors.

“To really change the future of health, we need a space that facilitates the future,” said Baylor College of Medicine president, CEO, and executive dean Paul Klotman. “We need to have a great building to recruit great talent. Having a place where our clinical programs are located, where our data scientists are, next to a biotech development center, and having our medical students all integrated into that environment will allow them to be ready in the future for where health care is going.”

“My grandparents’ bold vision for serving Houston was to help establish the world’s greatest medical center, and for that, the [Texas Medical Center] needed to recruit a top-notch medical school, which Baylor continues to be,” said Corbin Robertson, Jr., former chair of the Baylor College of Medicine board and chair of the Cullen Trust for Higher Education. “That is why our family has supported Baylor for five generations.”

(Photo credit: Design by The S/L/A/M Collaborative. Rendering by ARS Longa)