Construction on a $1.1 billion, 21-story expansion is well under way at Ohio State University and the school has renamed its medical center in honor of an alumnus who donated $100 million for the project.

University officials in Columbus announced last week the Ohio State University Medical Center is now the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University. Billionaire Les Wexner graduated from the school in 1959 and is the founder and current chairman and CEO of the Limited Brands. He's also a former chairman of the school's board of trustees. The Ohio State University Health System includes the 976-bed medical center and 202-bed James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.

OSU President Gordon Gee said the school's financial outlook is positive with its credit rating holding steady. Strong financials and donations like Wexner's allowed the project—scheduled for completion in 2014—to happen. Careful planning happened before construction, as this is biggest construction project in the school's 142-year history: “We're aggressive, not crazy,” Gee said.

Construction started in 2010, but the idea for the project has been around for a decade, said Dr. Steven Gabbe, CEO of the medical center and senior vice president for health sciences. The project is an expansion of the James Cancer Hospital, which opened in 1990. Even back then, officials knew it wasn't big enough to serve the growing population, Gabbe said.

The new hospital will also have spaces in critical-care rooms for families to stay. That eliminates the need for families to find hotels, Gabbe notes. The facility will be the tallest academic hospital in the country, he added. There's also a commitment to the environment, and a park “bigger than a football field,” will be in front of the hospital, Gabbe also said.

Gee said the advantage of the medical center is that it's integrated with the rest of OSU's campus. He joked that one of the school's goals is to get the physicians, physicists and philosophers to spend time together.