Just behind South Providence Medical Park, the University of Missouri’s Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment celebrated the completion of the steel framework of its new facility Friday morning.
There is already a Thompson Foundation operating facility and research center on Keene Street in Columbia, but MU wants to expand existing services to serve a larger community.
Connie Brooks, executive director of the Thompson Center, compared the similarities between the Thompson Center and Whiting-Turner, the construction company for the new building. Brooks said their shared goal for the new center is to “create a comfortable and cozy environment and to create spaces where life happens and where every brick and every word matters to the families we serve.”
The Thompson Center provides clinical and educational services for individuals with autism and neurodevelopmental disorders and their families, including diagnostics, speech and language support, therapy and psychology appointments, developmental pediatrics, and research in the treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders.
The new facility is scheduled to be completed in October 2025 and opened in spring 2026, according to previous reports from KOMU 8.
