Dear Members of the HMS and HSDM Community:

Today I have the distinct pleasure of announcing plans for a major addition to Building C, made possible thanks to an extraordinary $75 million gift from longtime Harvard Medical School friend and supporter Ernesto Bertarelli, MBA ’93. The outdoor courtyard of Building C will be transformed into an expansive, skylighted atrium that will serve as convening and collaboration space for the West Quad and the broader HMS community.

In recognition of this generous commitment from the Bertarelli family, Building C will be named the Bertarelli Building following completion of the atrium’s construction.

Built in 1906, Building C is one of the five marble buildings — originally named A, B, C, D, and E — that form our iconic Quadrangle, and the last to be named. In addition to housing the Department of Cell Biology and the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Building C serves as a vibrant hub for the HMS Therapeutics Initiative. It is also home to the Blavatnik Harvard Life Lab Longwood, a centerpiece of the initiative that opened in October 2022.

The atrium construction project is anticipated to begin in 2023 and be completed in 2025. In the months ahead, I will share with you renderings of this project. The Building C facade was recently restored and will be preserved, and the new spaces housed within the atrium will be integrated into our historic campus fabric.

This gift is the latest in more than a decade of support to HMS and the University from the Bertarelli family. Their generosity has established the Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering, which culminated in a 10-year anniversary symposium held in October 2022; the endowed Bertarelli Professorship in Translational Medical Science, currently held by David Corey; and the Bertarelli Rare Cancers Fund, established in 2019 by Dona Bertarelli, Ernesto’s sister.

As the current chair of our HMS Board of Fellows, Ernesto serves as a sage advisor to HMS and to me. Also a staunch University citizen, Ernesto is a major donor to Harvard Business School and serves on the HBS Board of Dean’s Advisors.

Please join me in thanking Ernesto for his unwavering commitment to and support of our work.

Sincerely,

George Q. Daley
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
Harvard University