The building, at the southeast corner of Duncan and South Newstead avenues, will extend Washington U’s medical campus eastward, to the western edge of the Cortex Innovation Community, a hub for technology and biological science research and development. A university-owned parking lot and an Ameren electrical substation now occupy the site.

International architecture firms Perkins and Will, based in Chicago, and CannonDesign, founded in Buffalo, New York, and with an office in St. Louis, are the building’s designers. McCarthy Building Cos., of Ladue, is overseeing construction.

Part of the building’s high cost results from the need for extensive air-handling equipment in laboratories. To isolate microscopes and other sensitive research devices from vibration, the building’s heating and cooling systems will be installed in an adjoining structure.

The university plans to finance most of the yet-to-be-named building through taxable bonds.

Existing medical school space vacated by neuroscience researchers who move to the new building will be reoccupied by researchers in other medical fields.