Today (Wednesday, December 12), a ceremony was held to celebrate completion of the first floor for the Helmsley Health Discovery Tower, under construction at the heart of Rambam Health Care Campus. Attending were representatives of Rambam’s administration, Friends of Rambam, University of Haifa, and the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology.
Pouring the roof of the first floor of Helmsley Health Discovery Tower. Photography: Pioter Fliter
Earlier this morning, Rambam completed the first floor of its flagship project for development of hospital’s west campus. The project was made possible thanks to a generous $18 million donation from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. Helmsley Health Discovery Tower is a joint initiative of Rambam Health Care Campus and University of Haifa, in cooperation with the Technion, and is considered one Israel’s most important projects in medicine and the life sciences.
Helmsley Health Discovery Tower will rise to a height of 20 floors, with a total area of 28,000 square meters. The project will be executed in stages, with the first stage covering construction of the skeleton and shell of the building, completion of the infrastructure and critical systems at the second stage, with the interior being completed at the last stage.
Completion of the first floor began this morning, requiring 55 concrete mixers for the pouring of a 420 cubic meter ceiling. This is the first ceiling of 20, which are expected to be completed within 30 months. Construction with a crane, rising up 95 meters, will begin shortly for work on the west corner of the tower. This is probably one of the tallest cranes erected to date in Haifa and the surrounding area.
Professor Rafi Beyar, Rambam’s director, said at the ceremony this morning that: " Helmsley Health Discovery Tower is at the center of Rambam's vision and in the heart of our medical campus. It will connect clinical medicine, academia from two universities, and medical start-up industry. I expect the tower to serve as a growth vehicle for advanced medical industry in Haifa and Israel — like a lighthouse shining for all, far and near. Israel is the start-up nation in medicine. The pioneering initiatives and the integration of different related factors at the center of the Rambam campus will accelerate the development starting from real clinical needs at the patient's bed, through to science of innovation and technology, and then bringing that discovery back to the patients to meet their needs."
Establishment of the Helmsley Health Discovery Tower is the first collaboration of its kind, between Rambam, University of Haifa, the Technion, and hi-tech and biomedical industries. The tower will include Rambam centers of excellence, the Clinical Research Institute at Rambam (CRIR); a University of Haifa research and teaching, including labs and classrooms; an innovation complex for healthcare start-up companies; and an exhibition center for visitors.
Videography: Ofer Golan and Netanel Ayzik