A major step in the fight against brain diseases is being made with Thursday’s
groundbreaking ceremony for a permanent home to the Edmond and Lily Safra Center
for Brain Sciences (ELSC) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Designed
by the British architectural firm Foster + Partners, the new building will be
home to the country’s largest neuroscience center and be one of the most
ambitious in the world.
The 14,500 square-meter building on the Givat Ram
campus will include state-of-the- art labs, classrooms, an innovative imaging
center and areas for biological and pre-clinical research. Significant emphasis
will be placed on constructing an environmentally friendly building with a focus
on conserving energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
HU president
Prof. Menahem Ben-Sasson said a day before the ceremony: “This is one of the
university’s largest and most significant projects in the coming years. Without
the involvement of our donors, in particular the Edmond J. Safra Foundation and
the family of Corky Goodman, this project would not have come to
fruition.”
The ceremony will honor the Charles H. Goodman family and
include Ben-Sasson, ELSC Director Prof.
Eilon Vaadia and architects
Spencer De Grey and Darron Haylock of Foster + Partners.
Established in
2009, ELSC brings together a powerful interdisciplinary team of top scientists
working to revolutionize current neuroscience research. This collaboration will
contribute to worldwide progress in brain science and further establish the
university as one of the world’s leading neuroscience centers.
HU vice
president and director-general Billy Shapira said: “This project will be an
important contribution to the university and the city of Jerusalem. The building
will become a magnet for the scientific community and the general public, who
will see an architectural masterpiece that displays the innovation and progress
that characterize the university.”
ELSC director Prof. Eilon Vaadia said,
“This is another step towards our vision of building an advanced research center
that will provide the best technological infrastructure for researchers in brain
science. As a result, we will be able to continue recruiting outstanding
scientists and training the next generation of graduate students in our unique
Ph.D.
program.”
The prizewinning Foster + Partners will work with
the Jerusalem architectural firm of Baer, Shifman-Nathan Architects, headed by
architects Yuval Baer and Galit Shifman-Nathan, and with architect Zadok
Sherman.
Some of Foster’s most famous designs include London’s Millennium
Bridge and City Hall, the Hearst Tower in New York and Beijing airport – the
largest single building on the planet.
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