Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Icahn Medical Institute
New York, NY

350,000 SF • 32,516 SQ M

The 18-story Icahn Institute is the single largest component of Mount Sinai’s Research Modernization Program, providing 350,000 sf of laboratory, treatment, and education space for both the Hospital and the School of Medicine. This dual tenancy made clear, separate identities and accesses an essential design directive.

The Medical School had never had an entry distinct from the Hospital before, and the Institute finally gives it a public face. Its two-level lobby serves a major auditorium, cafeteria, academic bookstore, faculty club, and Dean’s office. Hospital programs are accessed by an entirely separate elevator lobby. An in-patient psychiatric unit occupies two floors, which are set back from the façade to create terraces and animate the building’s exterior. Research and clinical testing laboratories for oncology, cardiobiology, immunology, molecular genetics, neural aging, and structural biology are located on the upper floors to optimize service access to the mechanical plants at the middle and top of the building. The lab floor plans use a standard module that permits cost-effective adaptation to different research models, both current and emerging.

The Institute is the first core Mount Sinai facility not sited on its Fifth Avenue superblock and we designed a staff and utility tunnel under Madison Avenue to ensure the building functions as an integral part of the campus. Other below-grade components include a vivarium and three levels of parking.

Mount Sinai’s campus had grown incrementally and without any consistent architectural vocabulary. Instead of adding yet another style, we adopted the materials and design language of the most successful recent buildings. Further, we were able to complement these structures working at much lower cost per square foot for façades. The Institute’s finely detailed brick cladding and strong geometries make it immediately identifiable as a part of Mount Sinai and an exemplar for future campus expansion.

(Photography by Wade Zimmerman)