Construction for a new $120 million teaching center at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine began Wednesday with a groundbreaking ceremony.
The Teaching and Learning Center for Health Sciences will open in 2016 on the corner of Tiverton Drive and Le Conte Avenue.
The building will help UCLA train future medical students at the David Geffen School of Medicine with more modern facilities, Chancellor Gene Block said at the ceremony.
The center will house updated classrooms designed to encourage discussions and a suite of clinical skills centers, said Mary Goodstein, the director of Marketing & Communications at UCLA Health Sciences Development.
“Today teaching is different. It used to be lectures and it’s very much interactive now,” Goodstein said.
Funding for the project will come from UCLA Health Systems reserves and private donations, according to a UCLA press release.
“Members of the student body will be able to get together to think and project what’s going on in our future,” said Eugene Washington, the vice chancellor of health sciences, at the ceremony.