Weinberg Foundation Commits $20 Million to Hopkins Cancer Center

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation has pledged $20 million to The Johns Hopkins Hospital to support construction of a new comprehensive cancer center on the East Baltimore campus. The gift is the largest donation to any project in the history o f The Hopkins Hospital. The new building will be named The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building.

"This is a magnificent gift. The Foundation has made a strong statement about its commitment to the care of patients with cancer. The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building will be a place of hope and healing for cancer patients from all over the world," says James A. Block, M.D., president and CEO of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System.

The state-of-the-art cancer center, estimated to cost $97.7 million, will expand clinical space and allow Hopkins to serve as many as 15 percent more cancer patients each year. The new center will consolidate cancer care activities now dispersed throughout the Hospital and offer patients the most advanced treatment options in a comfortable and attractive setting. The new facility also will accommodate enhanced programs in cancer screening, education and community outreach, important initiatives for the state of Maryland, which has among the highest cancer rates in the country.

Occupying a 2.3 acre site at the corner of Broadway and Orleans Street, the new building will have the largest "footprint" of any structure on the East Baltimore campus. The 515,000 gross square foot facility will have seven floors, including one and a half levels of parking, an outpatient treatment area, a radiation oncology department, operating rooms, inpatient beds, a pharmacy, and a three-story sky-lit lobby. The building is slated for completion in 1998.

"Right now, our goal is to raise the capital necessary to fully fund the building project. But our inspiration is not the mortar and bricks that will create the shell of this building; it is the people, the energies, the accomplishments and the visions that will become the spirit of the building that compel us," says George L. Bunting, Jr., chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System.

Since its inception in 1959, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation has been dedicated to bettering the lives of those in need. Created and funded by the philanthropists Harry and Jeanette Weinberg, the Foundation has continued to grow and support a myriad of institutions throughout the world. Today, the Weinberg Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States, with assets in excess of $1,000,000,000.

Harry Weinberg passed away in 1990, little more than a year after the death of his wife. Their work lives on through the charitable contributions of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.

"We are pleased to participate in a project of this magnitude. Johns Hopkins is making an important commitment to the community, to the state and to the entire nation to provide cancer patients with the finest care possible at what promises to be one of the premier cancer facilities in the world," says Bernard Siegel, President of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation gift brings the total of gifts and pledges to $382 million of the $900 million fund raising campaign Hopkins announced last fall. Out of the $900 million total goal, $271 million has been raised toward the endowment/facilities goal of $525 million.

Go to Headlines@HopkinsHome Page