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Friends of UCSF Celebrate Diller Building Groundbreaking
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Comprehensive Cancer Center Director Frank McCormick
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Over 50 faculty and friends of UCSF gathered on April 5 at the Mission Bay campus to celebrate groundbreaking for construction of the new Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building.
Scheduled to be completed in 2008, the state-of-the-art structure will be a prominent feature of UCSF's 43-acre Mission Bay campus, located on the eastern waterfront of San Francisco. Designed by noted architect Rafael Viñoly, it will provide more than 160,000 gross square feet for UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers—with cutting-edge laboratories and space to facilitate easy collaboration among investigators.
The Helen Diller family's $35 million gift in 2003 was the largest contribution from an individual donor in UCSF history. The family's leadership, along with generous contributions from other donors, made the facility's construction possible.
Held during a rare sunny break from this season's persistent rains, the groundbreaking ceremony was marked by speeches from leading UCSF faculty, including David Kessler, MD, dean of the UCSF School of Medicine. Kessler declared that the building would double the amount of cancer research space at UCSF, bringing together "widely dispersed scientific activities" into a "magnificent new space."
The event also featured addresses from directors of the three prestigious research groups to be housed in the building:
- Peter Carroll, MD, Department of Urology chair and Urologic Oncology Research Program director;
- Mitch Berger, MD, Neurological Surgery chair and Brain Tumor Research Center director; and
- Frank McCormick, PhD, FRS, Comprehensive Cancer Center and Cancer Research Institute director.
Just before the symbolic groundbreaking began, UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop, MD, took the podium, thanking the Helen and Sanford Diller family and the many donors who have "helped to bring this grand vision to reality.
"This building will stand as a symbol of hope for the millions of men, women, and children who suffer from cancer," Bishop affirmed. "I am certain that the discoveries made here will bring more rapid and accurate diagnoses, new treatments, and, ultimately, definitive preventions and cures for this devastating disease."
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