On Miami’s skyline, a new glass giant is trying to turn lab work into lifelines. The Kenneth C. Griffin Cancer Research Building, a 12-story Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center tower, now anchors UHealth’s downtown campus, stacking patient care directly under research floors in a bid to move discoveries into clinical trials faster and expand treatment options for South Florida patients.
Opened in fall 2025, the Griffin Cancer Research Building tacked roughly 244,000 square feet onto the downtown medical campus and effectively doubled Sylvester’s research footprint, the University of Miami reported. Designed for up to 1,000 staff members, the tower brings oncologists, geneticists, data scientists and epidemiologists together in one place to speed the path from hypothesis to therapy.
Clinic Floors and Patient Services
The second, third and fourth floors are dedicated to clinical care, with a cancer clinic that includes 27 infusion bays, advanced imaging suites and an onsite pharmacy, along with supportive services like nutrition counseling, art and music therapy and a meditation room, HOK noted. “Our mission to reduce the cancer burden in our communities and beyond is driven by scientific ambition and a deep culture of collaboration,” Sylvester director Stephen D. Nimer said.
Labs, AI and Team Science
A short elevator ride from the clinic floors, AI-driven dry labs and glass-walled research “neighborhoods” are laid out to promote team science and constant cross-talk among experimentalists, computational researchers, clinicians and public-health scientists, HOK explained. “The Griffin Cancer Research Building is designed to spur collaboration, accelerate discoveries and improve patient outcomes,” said Chirag Mistry, the firm’s director of Science + Technology.
A Gift That Funded the Name
The tower’s name traces back to a $50 million donation from Kenneth C. Griffin, announced in March 2024 as a lead gift for the project. The contribution, one of several significant healthcare donations Griffin has made since moving to Miami, helped jump-start construction and naming efforts, according to CBS Miami.
What This Means for Miami Patients
Sylvester is South Florida’s only cancer center with a National Cancer Institute designation, and the new downtown building is intended to broaden access to early-phase clinical trials and personalized therapies for the region’s diverse patient population, the National Cancer Institute notes. In 2025, Sylvester conducted roughly 520 clinical research studies, a volume the center says the Griffin building can better support as it ties bench science more tightly to bedside care, according to the National Cancer Institute.
