Connection and collaboration

Consisting of enclosed offices, modular workstations, conferencing spaces, break areas, and informal collaboration spaces, the Hub is an eight-story, 322,300-square-foot professional office building. Located on the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center (MRMC) campus, the facility allows more than 1,400 physicians, nurse practitioners, researchers, and healthcare staff to be relocated into one dedicated central workplace.

In addition to enhancing patient access and care delivery, the Hub for Collaborative Medicine creates a modern workplace environment that brings faculty, clinicians, and students together for innovative clinical, research, educational, and community engagement endeavors. The collaborative campus design seeks to attract and retain the best students, faculty, and staff while supporting clinical growth and preserving space for future expansion.

Located between the Medical College of Wisconsin's (MCW) existing Medical Education and Health Research Center, the Hub serves as both a physical and symbolic bridge connecting the clinical, academic, and research missions of MCW. It can house as many as 1,500 employees, creating new efficiencies through proximity and adjacencies, providing adaptable workspaces and shared resources among departments and programs, and incorporating cutting-edge technology to connect staff and faculty. Additionally, it helps alleviate clinical space at Froedtert Hospital that previously was used for offices.

The building's floor plan is marked by consistency to allow for flexibility as different groups grow and shrink over time or as administrators see opportunities to shift certain groups to work more closely together. At the same time, it is designed to encourage collaboration, featuring openings and interaction areas between floors (around which are located common support functions), open interaction stairs, and shared conference rooms and break areas; organized to create a desired crossing of interdisciplinary paths.

"This is a complete win-win," said John Schreiber, chief executive officer of Medical College Physicians. "It allows us to pull together faculty in a very innovative space where there is interface and interaction."

By focusing on a flexible, adaptable workplace design that encourages collaboration and fruitful interaction, the new Hub for Collaborative Medicine helps advance the MRMC's mission by providing clinicians and researchers with an engaging environment that fosters innovation and discovery.