The Waisman Center is a complex of three interconnected buildings totaling 253,585 gross square feet.  An eight-story south tower and a one-story west wing annex opened in 1973 with the support of a grant awarded to the University of Wisconsin-Madison through the 1963 Mental Retardation Facilities and Mental Health Centers Construction Act. In 1996, a major expansion project was launched to construct a six-story tower (the Heckrodt Translational Research Tower) for biomedical research, and to renovate the west wing annex—a project with a budget of $25.6 that was funded entirely by university funds and private gifts. The south tower and west wing annex accommodate biological and behavioral science laboratories, core service facilities, training programs, clinics, and the Waisman Early Childhood Program.  The Heckrodt Translational Research Tower houses stem cell and gene therapy research programs, the Waisman Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility, Waisman Center Brain Imaging Laboratory, more core service facilities, and a state-of-the art conference center.  All three buildings of the Waisman Center are connected via walkways, facilitating interaction and collaboration.

The biomedical laboratory space on the 6th floor of the Waisman Center’s original building was in poor physical condition and much of the space was unoccupied for several years. The preclinical research support facilities on the 7th floor were outdated and extremely limited in both function and capacity.  These vacant laboratories and outdated facilities represented a significant loss of opportunity to the Waisman Center. 

The renovation of our 6th floor laboratory space and our 7th floor preclinical research support facilities enables us to expand the amount of laboratory space for research supported by federal grant funds, and strategically expand our research portfolio by attracting new faculty working in relevant and complementary areas of biomedical research.