Brown Marks Opening of New Med School Building

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Brown University is marking the opening of a brand-new medical school building in Providence's downtown “Knowledge District.”

More than 100 first-year medical students arrived Monday for the start of classes in an old jewelry factory building that has undergone a $45 million renovation.

The Warren Alpert Medical School, Rhode Island's only medical school, has never had its own facility, and the opening of the 134,000-square-foot building at 222 Richmond Street will allow the university to expand its medical education program from about 100 students per class to 120.

The medical school joins several research, technology and life sciences tenants in a district on which city and state officials have pinned high hopes for economic development.

Medical school Dean Edward Wing calls the building a “keystone” of the Knowledge District.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)