Texas A&M University and EYP have recently completed a renovation and modernization project of the university’s Engineering & Health Building for the Engineering Medicine (EnMed) program.
The program is an integrated medical and engineering option for medical school that focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship wherein students simultaneously earn their doctor of medicine and master of engineering in four years.
The EnMed building is located in the east of the Texas Medical Center. The facilities required an extensive renovation of two connected structures — a two-story former bank built in 1952 and a 17-story office tower built in 1962.
The exterior facade was replaced and redesigned and now features a unitized glazed curtain wall system with stone and metal panels. Inside, the building features large, reconfigurable learning studios, flexible classrooms, multidisciplinary labs, and glass-enclosed collaboration spaces. The elevator shafts in the old office building were small and needed to be made bigger to accommodate gurneys. The build team combined two elevator shafts and ordered a custom elevator to achieve the needed size.
A 2,471-sf maker space serves EnMed’s engineering curricula with reconfigurable tables, 3D printers, a machine shop, and a floor-to-ceiling glass partition system that provides views to what is happening inside. Embedded in the glass is one of the original bank vault doors that bridges the building’s past and future. Additionally, 3D modeling and virtual creation tools are available to all students in the VR and AR simulation rooms.
A medical education simulation center offers students skills-based training on the healthcare side of the program. The simulation suite provides a hospital environment complete with beds, mock headwalls, and integrated teaching space.
Also included are a cafe, a 240-seat auditorium, conference spaces, and support areas. The facility’s “crown jewel” is the 17th-floor board room and multifunction space, designed to attract students, faculty, and donors to the program.
Related Stories
| Oct 13, 2010
Residences bring students, faculty together in the Middle East
A new residence complex is in design for United Arab Emirates University in Al Ain, UAE, near Abu Dhabi. Plans for the 120-acre mixed-use development include 710 clustered townhomes and apartments for students and faculty and common areas for community activities.
| Oct 13, 2010
New health center to focus on education and awareness
Construction is getting pumped up at the new Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado, Denver. The four-story, 94,000-sf building will focus on healthy lifestyles and disease prevention.
| Oct 13, 2010
Community college plans new campus building
Construction is moving along on Hudson County Community College’s North Hudson Campus Center in Union City, N.J. The seven-story, 92,000-sf building will be the first higher education facility in the city.
| Oct 12, 2010
University of Toledo, Memorial Field House
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Memorial Field House, once the lovely Collegiate Gothic (ca. 1933) centerpiece (along with neighboring University Hall) of the University of Toledo campus, took its share of abuse after a new athletic arena made it redundant, in 1976. The ultimate insult occurred when the ROTC used it as a paintball venue.
| Oct 12, 2010
Owen Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Officials at Michigan State University’s East Lansing Campus were concerned that Owen Hall, a mid-20th-century residence facility, was no longer attracting much interest from its target audience, graduate and international students.
| Oct 12, 2010
Cell and Genome Sciences Building, Farmington, Conn.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Administrators at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington didn’t think much of the 1970s building they planned to turn into the school’s Cell and Genome Sciences Building. It’s not that the former toxicology research facility was in such terrible shape, but the 117,800-sf structure had almost no windows and its interior was dark and chopped up.
| Oct 12, 2010
Full Steam Ahead for Sustainable Power Plant
An innovative restoration turns a historic but inoperable coal-burning steam plant into a modern, energy-efficient marvel at Duke University.
| Sep 16, 2010
Green recreation/wellness center targets physical, environmental health
The 151,000-sf recreation and wellness center at California State University’s Sacramento campus, called the WELL (for “wellness, education, leisure, lifestyle”), has a fitness center, café, indoor track, gymnasium, racquetball courts, educational and counseling space, the largest rock climbing wall in the CSU system.
| Sep 13, 2010
Community college police, parking structure targets LEED Platinum
The San Diego Community College District's $1.555 billion construction program continues with groundbreaking for a 6,000-sf police substation and an 828-space, four-story parking structure at San Diego Miramar College.
| Sep 13, 2010
Campus housing fosters community connection
A 600,000-sf complex on the University of Washington's Seattle campus will include four residence halls for 1,650 students and a 100-seat cafe, 8,000-sf grocery store, and conference center with 200-seat auditorium for both student and community use.