University of Louisville to build downtown campus after landing biggest gift in history
The University of Louisville has landed its largest single gift in institution history, with a multimillion-dollar investment to go toward renovating two downtown buildings to be used as part of a new campus.
Holistic health advocate Christina Lee Brown will donate $30 million over 20 years to go toward revitalizing the buildings, which are along West Muhammad Ali Boulevard at Fifth Street, she and university leaders said at a press conference Wednesday. The university will also be allowed to use the revitalized buildings without paying rent, which the school said equates to a $17-million-in-kind donation. Additional partnerships and financial support for the campus will be sought as well.
The campus, which incorporates the old Republic building, will serve as home to the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute New Vision of Health Campus, the university said. John Drees, a spokesperson for the university, said the buildings will be fully operationally in two to three years.
K. Norman Berry Associates Architects will be working on the buildings, said Jill Scoggins, the university's director of communications.
The facility will help the school "continue its pioneering work addressing holistic health challenges for Louisville and beyond," a school release said, by engaging officials in the industry along with lawmakers and other community members to study how natural, social and personal environments impact health.
Aruni Bhatnagar, a professor of medicine and head of the university's Division of Environmental Medicine, heads the institute, which was created in 2018.
For Courier Journal subscribers: McConnell blames Biden for Kentucky's empty US Attorney seats. The problem is closer to home
Renovation already has started on the second floor of the second building, which is next to the old Republic building. There are several posters describing the institute's projects, including the Green Heart Project and the Co-Immunity Project. One day, Bhatnagar said, the institute will use the space to teach the public how to cook and eat well. There will be labs to study sleep, nutrition and physical activity.
"This will be a place where Nobel Laureates can lecture and Olympians can learn more about their bodies and performances," Deputy Mayor Ellen Hesen said. "And, it will be another destination for our tourists, so they can see something they can't see anywhere else in the world."
Several universities in the country have holistic health degree programs, including the University of Michigan and Western Connecticut State University.
Ted Smith, an associate professor of medicine and pharmacology and the director of the institute's center for healthy air, water and soil, said the institute will focus on the question "what is health?" and on how to live a disease-free life. He said that young children are getting diabetes, and rather than focusing on cheaper insulin, he wants to find ways to prevent kids from getting diabetes in the first place.
The largest individual gift up to this point was $25 million, Drees said. It was an unrestricted gift given in 2011 by Owsley Brown Frazier, who is also a member of the Brown-Forman family.
Reach Eleanor McCrary at emccrary@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @ellie_mccrary.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: University of Louisville building new downtown campus after $30M gift
