Arizona State University starts work on building for new medical school

Article originally posted on CoStar on April 20, 2026

Arizona State University started construction this month on a classroom building for a new medical school it expects to open in two years in downtown Phoenix.

The 200,000-square-foot building at the corner of East Pierce Street and North Fourth Street will house the John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering, the first medical college operated by Arizona State. The five-story facility will also be occupied by the university’s School of Technology for Public Health and programs from the Edson College of Nursing.

Healthcare organizations are in the midst of a building boom, with new hospitals opening or under construction across the U.S. and Canada. Oregon Health & Science University recently opened a $650 million facility in Portland. The 2.8 million-square-foot Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital is under construction in Ontario and will be the largest hospital in Canada upon completion.

The construction boom comes even as many hospitals are struggling financially due to reduced federal and state funding, the rising costs of medical care and infrastructure, higher patient volumes and worker shortages. About two dozen hospitals closed in 2025 from financial pressures, according to Becker’s Hospital Review, a trade publication.

Further, the JLL Healthcare Center of Excellence recently issued a report on the lack of available space in medical outpatient clinics in the U.S. and urged the development of more such properties.

The Shufeldt School of Medicine has received preliminary accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the national accrediting body for medical schools. Arizona State expects to hold the medical school’s first classes in the new building in fall 2028.

Arizona State is one of the largest universities in the U.S. with more than 160,000 students enrolled at several campuses in the country and overseas as well as online.

CO Architects, based in Los Angeles, is the lead designer for the new Arizona State medical school building and has an extensive portfolio of work for healthcare organizations. The firm’s healthcare portfolio includes a new facility for the Rutgers University School of Medicine in New Brunswick, New Jersey; a biomedical campus for Wichita State University and the University of Kansas Medical Center; and a facility for the University of Nevada-Las Vegas medical school.

CO Architects also works on renovation and modernization projects for existing hospitals. It designed the recently completed UCI Health hospital in Irvine, California, an all-electric building that receives electric power only from non-fossil fuel sources.