UF to build new veterinary research center, hospital

Gainesville, Fla. — The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine is building a new Veterinary Education and Clinical Research Center that will include a state-of-the-art small-animal hospital.

Campus addition: This is an architectural rendering of the University of Florida's new Veterinary Education and Clinical Research Center, which will include a new small-animal hospital.

The $58 million facility, several years in the planning, will replace a building that has not undergone major renovation in 25 years. Ground was broken during a ceremony in late November.

The university's small-animal hospital has an annual caseload of about 16,000 patients that come from throughout Florida and much of the Southeast.

The new 90,000-square-foot, three-story hospital will be just north of the present hospital and will triple its size.

Client access and patient exam rooms will be on the first floor, with separate waiting areas for dogs and cats. An intensive-care unit, spaces for satellite digital radiography and ultrasonography and a pharmacy also will be on the first floor. The second floor will house a surgical operating suite, anesthesia preparation, monitoring and recovery areas, a physical rehab suite and an endoscopy unit, while the top floor will contain faculty offices and meeting rooms.