Vanderbilt University, the Nashville, Tennessee-based private university, has unveiled official renderings of its satellite campus in West Palm Beach — providing a glimpse of the future academic space.
It follows the city and Palm Beach County’s final approval for the campus last October. The projected $520 million campus, with an emphasis on finance and technology industries, promises to serve as a hub for graduate students and entrepreneurs.
It’s anticipated to contribute to a city experiencing significant population and business growth in the last few years — attracting companies from major aerospace and finance industries to manufacturing.
“We are delighted to share these renderings and our vision for a West Palm Beach campus,” Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said in a statement to WLRN. “The images show that we are planning a unique learning and research environment that nurtures collaboration and innovation and is sustainable in all senses.”
The project is moving forward with necessary fundraising — Vanderbilt’s Board of Trust has set an ambitious goal of $300 million to bring the campus vision to life, having successfully secured, in 2024, five acres of county-owned land and two acres from West Palm Beach.
The properties are located along South Tamarind Avenue, in an area of the city known as Government Hill.
READ MORE: A Vanderbilt University campus in West Palm Beach could rain billions on local economy
Design honors Florida's natural landscape
The graduate campus, which officials say will mirror some key design elements of Vanderbilt’s main campus in Nashville, includes 300,000 square feet of facilities for more than 1,000 students, school parking and student housing.
Spearheaded by Boston-based Elkus Manfredi Architects, the designers aim to integrate South Florida’s natural environment — wide outdoor spaces with an arboretum, a type of botanical garden featuring indigenous South Florida trees like the sabal palm, and native plants such as sea grapes.
The school will be erected around the same location where a University of Florida campus would have been built on, prior to plans being scrapped last fall over land and naming rights disagreements between developer Jeff Green and UF. However, Greene’s land isn’t required for the current Vanderbilt deal.
The county continues to face gentrification and workforce housing affordability challenges, but the effort surrounding the school received strong support from public comments last year — elected officials, businesspeople, alumni and local residents.
Harvey E. Oyer, III, a local Land Use Attorney and lobbyist, said the campus would maintain a "talent pipeline" that could keep companies from relocating elsewhere.
A Vanderbilt economic impact study shows the university’s more than $7 billion in economic activity in 25 years could double over a 50-year period.
