UC San Francisco has taken a transformative step to drive the future of its education and patient care missions by acquiring two life sciences buildings next to its Mission Bay campus. This strategic expansion will create urgently needed space for a new home for the UCSF School of Dentistry, a leading-edge hub for interprofessional education, expanded research capacity, and increased access to high-quality dental care for the community.
At the heart of the investment is a bold reimagining of UCSF’s health professions education. A biotech facility at 409 Illinois St., previously owned by an affiliate of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., will be transformed into a modern center for instruction and learning, featuring a 60,000-square-foot education center where students from dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and physical therapy will learn together in high-tech simulation labs and team-based learning environments.
The building will house dental clinics designed for the future of oral health care. These clinics will incorporate digital dentistry, integrated primary and specialty care, team-based care models, and expanded capacity to serve Bay Area patients. The state-of-the-art clinical settings will enable UCSF dentists to lead and prepare graduates in an evolving health care landscape, while delivering more efficient, accessible, and patient-centered dental care for the community.
The investment comes at a pivotal time, as UCSF contends with significant space limitations and outdated facilities across its health sciences programs.
“UCSF’s patient care, research, and education are experiencing tremendous advances, making the need for forward-thinking space more critical now than ever,” said UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood, MBBS. “This investment anchors the future of the health professions at UCSF. It allows us to address our current space constraints and ensure that faculty, students, researchers and, most importantly, patients have the facilities they need to thrive in the years ahead.”
Next door at 499 Illinois St., UCSF clinics, labs, and administrative offices already occupy 90% of the building, which the university has leased for more than a decade. With this purchase, UCSF will convert these lease obligations into a more efficient mortgage structure, lowering long-term costs while strengthening stability and future growth for its research programs.
Modern space for learning and care
Together, the buildings offer 525,421 square feet of laboratory, office, clinical, and educational space on 3.6 acres overlooking the San Francisco Bay. Built in 2009 for life sciences tenants, the facilities already meet UC’s seismic safety standards and present a rare opportunity to modernize an existing structure rather than building anew — saving an estimated two years of construction time and significantly reducing costs. Renovations of 409 Illinois are expected to begin in 2026, with completion targeted for late 2029.
This new building allows us to design the educational experience with our patients’ needs right where they should be — at the forefront.
Michael Reddy, DMD, DMsc
For the UCSF School of Dentistry, currently operating in a 1979 building, this expansion represents a transformational upgrade to a purpose-built environment that aligns with contemporary expectations for academic and clinical excellence. The school is advancing a long-term plan to reinvent dental education by leveraging emerging technologies and deepening integration with other health professions, reflecting the growing recognition that oral health is an essential part of overall health. Co-locating dental education, clinical research, and patient care with the other health professions in Mission Bay will accelerate this vision and create richer opportunities for interdisciplinary training.
The facility will introduce pioneering clinical environments, with enhanced comfort, privacy, and an improved overall patient experience. Designed around a patient-centered model of care, the new clinics will support advanced technologies, integrated specialty services, and team-based approaches that allow providers to deliver coordinated, high-quality oral health care. The relocation also brings the school’s pediatric practice into close proximity with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Mission Bay, offering families a seamless, centralized destination for comprehensive medical and dental services for their children.
“This new building allows us to design the educational experience with our patients’ needs right where they should be — at the forefront,” said Michael Reddy, DMD, DMSc, dean of the UCSF School of Dentistry. “It will have the facilities to provide high-quality, high-tech care in a comfortable and private space, and in a beautiful location with waterfront views.”
A decade of planning finds a home
The new integrated education center will create extraordinary opportunities for collaboration across UCSF’s professional schools — each a national leader in research and education — by supporting innovative teaching methods and providing adaptable, technology-rich learning environments that reflect the future of health professions.
The center is the culmination of 10 years of planning by UCSF educators who have long envisioned a shared space that promotes interprofessional learning. For the first time, this vision will have a dedicated home. The facility will include simulation and clinical skills labs where students can train together as interdisciplinary teams, building the skills and leadership needed to deliver exceptional, coordinated care. The location at Mission Bay will enable them to learn alongside the campus’s vibrant research enterprise and patient care activities, as they do today at Parnassus Heights.
In addition to advanced simulation labs, the center will feature modern classrooms, collaborative spaces, and faculty offices, along with dining areas and open gathering spaces that overlook the bay—creating an inviting environment that supports learning, well-being, and community.
“This investment is future focused at a time when others are questioning the direction of higher education,” said Catherine Lucey, MD, UCSF’s executive vice chancellor and provost, who has led the initiative to modernize training in the health professions. “It reflects our unwavering commitment to ensuring that our students and faculty have the high-quality space they need to learn, care for their patients, and advance discovery science.”