TCU dedicates its high-tech medical school in the heart of Fort Worth’s Medical District
TCU celebrated the official opening of Arnold Hall, the new home of its medical school, at a dedication ceremony Tuesday.
University leaders, city officials and medical students heralded the four-story building’s opening in Near Southside as a future cornerstone of Fort Worth’s medical community.
“We’ve put together the most innovative, rigorous curriculum of any medical school in the country, something that is very TCU,” President Daniel Pullin said. “That is that curriculum starts and ends with connection to the patient.”
The Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine, which launched in 2019, teaches 240 future physicians and has departments in family medicine, pediatrics, surgery, internal medicine, clinical sciences, emergency medicine, medical education and obstetrics and gynecology.
The 96,000-square-foot Arnold Hall at 1651 W. Rosedale St. is in the center of the Medical District. The school is so close to local hospitals that Tuesday’s ceremony was briefly interrupted by a helicopter landing at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital across the street.
Inside the state-of-the-art facility, students use virtual reality, robotic mannequins and other technology to learn how to diagnose and treat patients.
The new building was funded in part by a $50 million gift from the estate of Anne Burnett Marion and The Burnett Foundation. A bust of Marion, which will be displayed in the school’s lobby, was unveiled Tuesday.
A portrait of donors Ashley and Greg Arnold was also unveiled and will hang in the lobby. Greg Arnold sits on the university’s board of trustees and is the CEO of Dallas-based TAC - The Arnold Companies. Three of the Arnold’s four children attended TCU.
“On behalf of the Texas Christian University board of trustees, I express our deepest appreciation to the Arnolds and all our generous donors for this wonderful new home for the Burnett School of Medicine,” said Kit T. Moncrief, chair of the board of trustees.
The Burnett School of Medicine opened in 2019. The highly competitive medical school receives roughly 7,000 applications each year for 60 spots. Since the inaugural class, the school’s graduates have landed residencies in programs including The Mayo Clinic, Stanford Health Care, UCLA Health, Vanderbilt, NYU and UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Construction of the medical school is part of TCU’s master plan, which aims to significantly expand the main campus over several years with as many as 25 new buildings, academic spaces, parking garages and sports facilities.
The private university could have as many as 15,000 undergraduate students by 2033, based on current growth projections.
This story was originally published September 24, 2024 at 5:03 PM.
