PROVIDENCE – Brown University is continuing its expansion in the Jewelry District, demolishing two buildings next to the university’s Warren Alpert Medical School to make way for a seven-story laboratory building.
The recent destruction of the buildings at 233 and 261 Richmond St. – a 31,000-square-foot office building constructed in 1970 and a small warehouse built in 1950 – marks the start of a construction project that is scheduled to take nearly two years to complete.
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Brown plans to build a 300,000-square-foot “integrated life sciences” building that the university has said is needed because the Laboratories for Molecular Medicine at 70 Ship St. in the Jewelry District and other research facilities on College Hill and South Main Street are at or near capacity.
In addition to lab space, the building will include offices, group workspaces, and a cafe. The design plans also include green spaces. The facility is expected to open in the spring of 2027.
The project received its final approval from the Downtown Design Review Committee on Dec. 11, following approval from the Providence City Plan Commission in September.
Brown has not disclosed the estimated cost of the project. The contractor is Boston-based Suffolk Construction Co., and the building was designed by the firms TenBerke and Ballinger.
Over the next month, Brown will continue to dispose of debris from the demolition and remove the foundations from 233 Richmond. By the end of the month, the university hopes to start site work and excavation, according to a calendar on Brown’s website.
The project has led to some long-term sidewalk closures and traffic has been restricted in some areas. Notably the southbound on Richmond Street has been closed.
In addition to the life sciences building, Brown recently opened a wet lab in the Wexford Science & Technology building on Dyer Street and is expected to lease space in a building already under construction in the Jewelry District that will also house the state health lab.
