Strong medicine: The Piedmont Triad Research Park Expansion Initiative 2002- 2012

Consistent with the character of Winston-Salem and Wake Forest Universitys 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 communitys economic revitalization. Indeed only some thirty acres of undeveloped land was needed to solve the medical schools chronic space needs. The decision to both meet that need and energize the economy with the simultaneous transformation of Winston-Salems 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 schools historic and landmark 1941 relocation. This narratives 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.