IHMC $20 million campus expansion takes another step forward, could be complete by early 2024

The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition's design for its planned $20 million expansion won the approval of city officials last week.

IHMC's plans for the Center for Human Healthspan, Resilience and Performance won unanimous backing of the Pensacola Architectural Review Board on Sept. 15.

The expansion of IHMC's campus will add a four-story, 44,000-square-foot facility on South Alcaniz Street.

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The design of the building is similar to IHMC's Levin Center on East Romana Street.

The expansion of IHMC will allow the research institute to expand its efforts into human health and performance, along with the research into artificial intelligence and robotics that it has conducted since its founding in 1990.

IHMC won a $6 million Triumph Gulf Coast grant in 2021 to kickstart its research into human health and performance.

The research institution has already had about a dozen employees working on the subject since earlier this year. The new building will allow the institute to triple the size of that team over the next five years.

Phillip Turner, IHMC’s director of architectural and engineering services, said in an email to the News Journal that construction will start in the next few months with a groundbreaking to take place in late October or early November.

Completion is scheduled for March 2024.

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: IHMC campus expansion: Pensacola officials give sign off, expansion begins