This is the first major construction for specialty patient care at Mayo Clinic in Rochester since the Mayo Building was built in the 1950s and expanded a decade later. "These facilities will help us make a visit to Mayo Clinic simpler, friendlier, quicker, easier and more efficient for our patients," says Hugh Smith, M.D., chair of the Board of Governors, Mayo Clinic Rochester.

The heart of the project is the new Gonda Building, the cost of which was $375 million. The centerpiece brings together clinic and hospital services to make more efficient use of patient time. The subway and lobby levels open in October. Preoperative examination and electrocardiography are located on the subway level; Admissions and Business Services and the Mayo Clinic Cancer Education Center are located in the lobby. As additional floors open, there will be more disease-specific patient care centers including the Neuroscience Center and the Cancer Center. Subsequent floors will open beginning in spring 2002, with the 10th and final floor is expected to open at the end of next year.

Centex Rogers is the general contractor on the project. The architects are Cesar Pelli, with offices in New Haven, Connecticut and New York, and Ellerbe Becker, a Minneapolis architectural firm.