Lowy Centre project underway

Clearing the site for the construction of the Lowy Cancer Research Centre, to be built near the Medical Faculty at the north eastern end of the campus, will begin next week.

Workers will remove trees in the area north of the Michael Birt Gardens to the Wallace Wurth building car park. Several other trees in the vicinity will also be removed, in accordance with plans approved by Randwick Council and the NSW Department of Planning.

The row of trees along the boundary and behind the bus shelters on High Street will remain.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma and philanthropist Frank Lowy turned the first sod at the site last week at a special ceremony to mark the beginning of construction.

The Lowy Cancer Research Centre will be an Australian first, bringing together childhood and adult cancer research at the one site.

The $100 million-plus facility will house up to 400 researchers from UNSW and Children’s Cancer Institute Australia (CCIA). It will be one of the largest dedicated cancer research centres in the Southern Hemisphere.

Mr Lowy and family have agreed to donate $10 million toward the cost of the new building - the largest single philanthropic donation ever received by the University.

In addition to the Lowy gift and University resources, other funding has come from individual donors, trusts and foundations as well as grants awarded to CCIA by the NSW State Government ($18.3m); the Commonwealth Government ($13.3m); and most recently a grant from the Australian Cancer Research Foundation ($3.1m) to establish a Drug Discovery Centre within the new building.

Construction of the Centre will be completed by 2009.The building is designed by Lahz Nimmo Architects, in association with Wilson Architects, and will be built by Bovis Lend Lease.

To see more images of the Centre, click here.