UC Irvine has broken ground on a $134-million health sciences complex which is bills as a "flagship" for the future of health education.

The project, which is being built by general contractor Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company, will be located on a nine-acre site at the intersection of Bison and California Avenues, a short distance south of UC Irvine's Research Park.  Plans call for a the construction of a five-story, 135,00-square-foot which will house the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences and the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute, as well a four-story, 77,000-square-foot structure for the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing.

"UCI is creating a national 'one-health' model for discovery, teaching and healing that brings together the strengths of the disciplines of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and population health," said UC Irvine's Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Steve Goldstein in a news release.

Architecture firms HED and The S/L/A/M Collaborative are the designing the health complex, which will surround a landscaped central courtyard, which connects to other nearby facilities within the UC Irvine campus.

Completion of the health complex is anticipated in 2022.

The two buildings are named after Susan and Henry Samueli and William and Sue Gross, who donated a combined sum of $240 million to UC Irvine to fund the construction and operations of the health complex.