Weill Cornell To Take Over 5 Floors Of Sotheby's UES Building

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Weill Cornell Medicine is making a big bet on five floors of the soon-to-be former home of an elite auction house.

The major Upper East Side medical center announced Tuesday their plans to add 200,000 square feet of dedicated research space to their York Avenue campus.

It will be the largest expansion for Weill Cornell Medicine in a decade and will eventually contain over 700 faculty and staff from the medical institution, which encompasses Weill Cornell Medical College, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and the Weill Cornell Physician Organization.

“Our institution’s critical research expansion will accelerate innovation in medicine so we can bring more cutting-edge treatments and therapies to patients,” said Jessica Bibliowicz, chair of the Weill Cornell Medicine Board of Fellows. “This new space will empower our scientists and physicians to discover and develop solutions to some of our greatest health challenges and ensure a brighter future for generations around the world.”

The space, at 1334 York Avenue, between East 71st and 70th streets, has been the global headquarters for Sotheby's auction house since 1980.

The building was previously a cigar factory and a Kodak warehouse, according to the auction house.

In June, Sotheby's announced they would move to the famous Breuer building on Madison Avenue next fall, after the Frick moves back to their restored East 70th Street mansion.

Like most things in New York City, the site's location is one of the biggest benefits, according to Weill Cornell's leadership.

With such a massive research space just a block from Weill Cornell's campus — and its partner hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian — breakthrough research can move "more rapidly from lab concept to patient therapies," said Robert A. Harrington, dean of Weill Cornell Medicine.

Weill Cornell said that key areas of research set to take place at the new facility includes neuroscience, immunotherapy, regenerative medicine, population health, women’s health and cardiovascular medicine, and will also help expand programs, like the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine and the Meyer Cancer Center.

In addition to more traditional research laboratories, also called "wet" lab space, Weill Cornell says there will also be ample room for "dry" lab space, where researchers will focus on computational biomedical research.

All of which coincides with Weill Cornell's major $1.5 billion fundraising campaign, called "We're Changing Medicine," a major focus of which is expanding the institution's research mission, according to a release by Weill Cornell.

The expansion will begin in 2024, with the laboratories set to open in 2026, according to Weill Cornell.

That's not the only expansion Weill Cornell has planned on York Avenue.

Just a few blocks away at East 74th Street, a new 16-story dormitory is set to open in 2025, replacing an 84-year-old church.