Strong medicine

Consistent with the character of Winston-Salem and Wake Forest University's motto, "Pro Humanitate" ("For Humanity"), the story line of STRONG MEDICINE could simply state, "WFU Health Sciences' new research and medical education campus downtown to lead two-hundred-plus-acre Piedmont Triad Research Park expansion and spur community's economic revitalization. Indeed, only some thirty acres of undeveloped land was needed to solve the medical school's chronic space needs. The decision to both meet that need and energize the economy with the simultaneous transformation of Winston-Salem's blighted entry to its eastern downtown, then composed of long- vacant tobacco factories, abandoned rail lines, an eyesore of a concrete production plant, and fields of Kudzu vines, echoes the medical school's historic and landmark 1941 relocation. This narrative's aim is to provide a firsthand description of the reasoning, events, complexities, and critical engagements of team members, community leaders, and government officials that composed the Wake Forest University Health Sciences' PTRP expansion initiative through its first decade of development, from 2002 to 2012.