Campus construction continues into the fall

In the fall, students will return to several capital construction projects, which are scheduled for completion. These include the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, MyFigueroa Project, a 24-hour Starbucks which will replace Café 84 and the USC Village.

The Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience is a $50 million project funded by retired orthopedic surgeon and philanthropist Gary Michelson and his wife Alya Michelson. It will span 190,000 square feet on Childs Way, making it the largest building on campus after its completion in December.

The building will contain shared labs, a nanofabrication facility and a suite of microscopy imaging for 30 principal investigators and hundreds of researchers and students.

“[The Michelson Center] is a University-wide umbrella for all at USC who want to leverage scientific collaboration to improve human health,” ,” wrote Steve Kay, provost professor of neurology, biomedical engineering and biological sciences, in an email to the Daily Trojan. “[It] will welcome undergraduates and graduate students alike from all disciplines to participate in discovery and invention.”

Kay will lead the center beginning this Fall.

The center aims to make advances in the medical field by innovating biomedical devices, discovering drugs, and inventing new materials, among other innovations.

“Someone will emerge as the biotech capital of the world,” Gary Michelson said in a promotional video for the project. “L.A. is one of those places that’s in a position to have this happen. At USC, [t]here is an opportunity to actually have our answer.”

Along with the Michelson Center, Figueroa Street is currently undergoing a streetwide construction effort that aims to transform Figueroa Street, from downtown L.A. to Exposition Park, into a multimodal pathway that more safely and conveniently accommodates pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders and drivers.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation, which is in charge of locally managing the project, hopes to decrease injury crashes between motor vehicles and cyclists by turning a portion of the three-mile roadway into a protected bikeway.

They also hope to make the experience of pedestrian and transit riders more enjoyable by adding better signalization, higher visibility crosswalks, transit platforms, foliage and public art. The MyFigueroa Project will be completed this June.

In addition, Bridge Hall will undergo a $15 million renovation. It will be funded by trustee Thomas Barrack Jr., and will be renamed Barrack Hall.

The project aims to accommodate the USC Marshall School of Business’ 15 international programs by creating new research centers, classrooms, offices and communal areas.

“The Barrack family’s exceptionally generous gift will bolster our Marshall School of Business and its faculty and students, and revitalize one of the school’s key facilities for generations to come,” said USC President C. L. Max Nikias in a previous statement to USC News.