Monell Chemical Senses Center is relocating within University City after 55 years on Market Street

Monell Chemical Senses Center is relocating to a new facility in University City to expand its operations and evolve its science, officials announced Wednesday.

The nonprofit research institute dedicated to studying taste and smell signed a 20-year lease at One uCity Square, a 13-story research hub, that will include more than $30 million worth of new infrastructure and facility improvements.

The new location at 25 N. 38th Street is a roughly seven-minute walk from the current home at 3500 Market Street, where Monell has resided since 1971.

Monell plans to finish moving into the new space in early 2027.

“We’re just at capacity. We don’t have the facilities that are going to push us forward into the future,” said Benjamin Smith, Monell’s executive director and president.

The move has been a long time coming, as the center’s more than 150 scientists and staff have outgrown its space over the last 50-plus years.

For example, more scientists have wanted to use newer research methods, such as organoids — miniature versions of organs grown in the lab, he said. However, the current building has limited cell culture space and imaging capabilities.

“Our people are excited because we’re moving to facilities that are going to help them do more of the work that they want to do,” Smith said.

The new space, which spans 64,000-square feet across three floors, is technically smaller than Monell’s current building. However, the design will allow for more efficient use of lab space.

The modern facility has an open layout filled with shared spaces, “as opposed to the old sort of academic lab where you were in one corner of a basement or one corner of a building and you locked your door,” Smith said.

He hopes this will encourage collaborations and interactions between scientists. That includes both within Monell and with other groups in the building.

Its neighbors within One uCity will include Dispatch Bio, Century Therapeutics, Penn NSF AIRFoundry, among other research and biotech companies. The office building opened in 2023 and is now roughly 90% occupied.

Monell’s iconic “Face Fragment” sculpture, perched outside its current building, will move too. The giant nose and mouth will be featured at the front of the One uCity building, looking out at the lawn.

“We’re making sure that we don’t lose that legacy,” Smith said. “We take our culture and we move it into the new building and we grow it.”