Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) this week dedicated a $20 million addition to the VCU School of Dentistry, Virginia's only dental school. The new building is named in honor of alumnus and former Board of Visitors Rector W. Baxter Perkinson Jr., D.D.S.
The four-story, 55,000-sq-ft structure connects the existing School of Dentistry's Wood and Lyons buildings, and enables the school to increase student enrollment in dentistry and dental hygiene, expand research, and improve patient access to care, according to the school.
The new facility includes dental and periodontics clinics and an off-street patient drop-off and pickup area. The addition enables the School of Dentistry to annually increase enrollment in its D.D.S. program from 90 to 100 students and in the dental hygiene program, from 20 to 40 students, the school said. The new building also increases laboratory space for the Philips Institute of Oral and Craniofacial Molecular Biology.
"The Perkinson Building will have a significant impact on VCU's research program, with new space for head and neck cancer research, as well as tissue bioengineering," said Sheldon Retchin, M.D., M.S.P.H., vice president for VCU Health Sciences, in a press release. "Researchers in the Philips Institute will work in collaboration with faculty at the VCU Massey Cancer Center and the School of Engineering."
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