Renovations on historic Harvard Medical School Building C are under way due to a $75 million donation from biotech executive Ernesto S.M. Bertarelli. The update will modernize the 119-year-old structure, including creating a new atrium space.
Harvard University - Gretchen Ertl photo
Ernesto Bertarelli (R) joins HMS Dean George Q. Daley and Harvard University President-elect Claudine Gay on the HMS campus in the courtyard of Building C, which will be enclosed to create a new skylighted atrium, thanks to a philanthropic gift from the Bertarelli family.
Construction is under way on updating Building C at the Harvard Medical School (HMS) campus in Boston, Mass. following a $75 million gift from Swiss biotech executive, entrepreneur and philanthropist Ernesto S.M. Bertarelli.
The renovation project will modernize the 119-year-old building, one of five historic marble structures that form the HMS quadrangle.
Bertarelli, a Harvard Business School (HBS) graduate and former CEO of Serono, a European biotech company, has consistently donated to HMS and HBS through his family organization, the Bertarelli Foundation.
In a statement, HMS spokesperson Dennis Nealon wrote that Bertarelli is a "longtime Harvard Medical School friend and supporter."
The venerable medical school's Building C currently houses the Department of Cell Biology and the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, in addition to serving as a hub for the HMS Therapeutics Initiative, which aims to advance therapeutics research, accelerate translation of discoveries into medicines, educate and train the inventors of future medicines.
It also is home to the recently opened Blavatnik Harvard Life Lab Longwood, a centerpiece of the Therapeutics Initiative that provides collaborative workspaces for early-stage, high-potential biotech and life sciences startups founded by Harvard students, alumni, postdoctoral scholars and faculty.
The Harvard Crimson noted Feb. 24, 2025, that the renovations also will update the school's Cannon lecture hall as well as common spaces and building systems in the surrounding area.
Most notably, however, the project will refurbish an existing courtyard by converting it into a new atrium. The work involves enclosing Building C's outdoor courtyard, situated between the wet lab and dry lab arms of the Blavatnik Life Lab.
The Building C facade was recently restored and will be preserved and the new spaces housed within the atrium will be integrated into HMS' historic campus fabric, the medical school said.
"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 Harvard Medical School community," Nealon said.
The renovations began earlier in February 2025 and are expected to be completed in October 2026, according to Nealon. While an earlier timeline set a target finish date in 2025, the plan was later revised after the architectural firm and general contractor were engaged and a start date was set.
"The Therapeutics Initiative is working to address the impediments that can hinder an idea in the lab from progressing toward a medicine," said Mark Namchuk, executive director of therapeutics translation of HMS. "A critical component to transiting that science is building the infrastructure where both basic and translational science can be supported and Ernesto Bertarelli is doing just that with his generous gift."
HMS Part of Dynamic Boston Neighborhood
Building C's structure, however, is not the only thing set to change.
"In recognition of this commitment from the Bertarelli family, Building C, which was constructed in 1906, will be named the Bertarelli Building after completion of construction," said Nealon.
This will make Building C the last of five historic buildings in the HMS Quadrangle to be named after a donor.
Built in 1906, Building C is one of five marble-faced buildings — originally named A, B, C, D and E — that form the medical school's iconic quadrangle. At that time, the combination of a new HMS and empty land in the Fenway part of Boston drew hospitals to the neighborhood now known as the Longwood Medical and Academic Area (LMA).
Today, the LMA is a thriving and dynamic community of medical, academic, research and cultural organizations — including several HMS-affiliated hospitals and research institutes — that combine to create a powerful economic engine for the city and the state.
"The combination of breakthrough science and empowering partnerships, like the one with Mr. Bertarelli, that animates the LMA is nothing short of inspiring," said Harvard President-elect Claudine Gay. "You can feel the future of human health taking shape around you."
HMS Dean George Q. Daley also praised Bertarelli's generosity, emphasizing his contributions' alignment with the school's goals of bridging basic science and therapeutic application.
"Ernesto Bertarelli is an ardent supporter of both fundamental and translational research at HMS," Daily said. "He understands that in order to improve the health and well-being of patients, we must first support observations in the lab and then nurture and orient them toward interventions in the clinic. It is therefore fitting that the Bertarelli name will be inscribed in the marble of the building that personifies our commitment to both basic and therapeutic science."
Bertarelli is currently chair of the private investment firm B-FLEXION, formerly Waypoint Capital. Born in Rome, he is a graduate of Babson College and Harvard Business School, where he earned his MBA in 1993.
The $75 million gift to Harvard is the Bertarelli family's latest in more than a decade of support to HMS, HBS and the university. They also established the Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering in 2010; the endowed Bertarelli Professorship in Translational Medical Science, held by David Corey; and the Bertarelli Rare Cancers Fund, established in 2019 by Dona Bertarelli, Ernesto's sister.
"Harvard Medical School is a world leader in health care innovation, translational research and cutting-edge discovery and it continues to have an immense impact on the health and well-being of humankind," Ernesto Bertarelli said in the HMS statement. "It has been my honor to have been a partner of the School for over two decades, and I am delighted to continue to support the HMS community in its important work by helping to modernize these landmark facilities to keep pace with therapeutics innovation."
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