Texas Christian University today officially completed its opening of Arnold Hall, a 95,000-sf, four-story home to the institution’s Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine.
Arnold Hall marks TCU’s first major off-campus development, and initiates future growth for the university’s downtown Fort Worth location. The project team—which included the architects CO Architects and Hoefer Welker, and the general contractor Linbeck—collaborated with the city of Fort Worth to select and establish the location near urban medical districts and Near Southside, an urban mixed-use community, to build a bioscience sector.
The new medical school sits less than a mile from Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center–Fort Worth, Cook Children’s Medical Center, Medical City Fort Worth, and Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital.
Construction of Arnold Hall—which had been in the works for a decade—was completed in July. The project was Plan B, after TCU and the University of North Texas Health Center couldn’t reach agreement for building under a private-public partnership. (The two parties split in January 2022, according to KERANews.)
Arnold Hall serves as an academic hub for 240 medical students annually, and nearly 150 faculty and staff. TCU administrators have estimated that the Burnett School of Medicine will create 31,200 jobs and have annual economic impact of $4 billion by 2030.
Future-ready facility
The new $62 million facility encourages collaboration via a commons area, library, classrooms, faculty offices and suites. Its third floor houses anatomy and experimental labs with AR and VR technologies. Students also have access to high-fidelity human mannikins in a medical simulation suite, where they can practice team-based care.
In the building’s clinical rooms, students hone their communications and diagnostic skills with patient-actors. And TCU’s curricula allow students to partner with physicians on their first day of medical school to identify drivers in the future of medicine that include artificial intelligence, genomics, and using technology to monitor patient health and diseases.
The Arnold Hall “communicates TCU’s commitment to creating dynamic state-of-the-art facilities for next-generation medical education,” said Stuart D. Flynn, MD, founding dean of the Burnett School of Medicine, in a prepared statement. Jonathan Kanda, FAIA, Principal with CO Architects, added that the goal of Arnold Hall is to create a school that is capable of “accommodating future technological and pedagogical advances in medical education.”
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Dual physics buildings aim for LEED Silver
Two new physics buildings providing 197,000 sf of teaching, study, and office space are opening at Texas A&M University. The $82.5-million George P. Mitchell '40 Physics Building and the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy offer new research laboratories, graduate and undergraduate lounges, offices, a 468-seat lecture hall, and a 180-seat aud...
| Aug 11, 2010
University building gets revamped, reused
KSS Architects of Philadelphia is designing the addition and renovation to SUNY Cortland's Studio West, a 43,000-sf metal panel and brick building dating to 1948. The 20,000-sf, two-story addition will become the Professional Studies Building, housing the consolidated departments of Recreation, Parks, and Leisure Studies; Communications Disorders and Sciences; and Kinesiology and Sports Managem...
| Aug 11, 2010
Project is music to school's ears
Florida Gulf Coast University is building a $7.55 million Fine Arts Building on its campus near Ft. Myers, Fla. The 25,000-sf building—the first project in the school's plan for an entire music complex—will house the music program of the College of Arts and Sciences. The facility includes a 200-seat recital hall, rehearsal hall, music labs, studio rooms, and administration offices.
| Aug 11, 2010
BU students move into high-rise dorm
Boston University’s newest residential building rises 26 stories above the Charles River. Part of the school’s 10-acre John Hancock Student Village, the 396,000-sf tower houses 962 students and has three apartments for faculty use. The tower also has a large multipurpose room on the top floor.
| Aug 11, 2010
Expansion of chemistry facility no experiment
A September ground breaking at Wayne State University in Detroit puts the school’s A. Paul Schaap Chemistry Building and Lecture Hall on track for a December 2010 completion. The $37 million, 96,000-sf facility is the second phase of a two-phase project to expand and renovate the existing chemistry building.
| Aug 11, 2010
Polshek unveils design for University of North Texas business building
New York City-based architect Polshek Partnership unveiled its design scheme for the $70 million Business Leadership Building at the University of North Texas in Denton. Designed to provide UNT’s 5,600-plus business majors with a state-of-the-art learning environment, the 180,000-sf facility will include an open atrium, an internet café, and numerous study and tutoring rooms—al...
| Aug 11, 2010
Cooper Union academic building designed to reach LEED Platinum
Morphosis Architects and Gruzen Samton are collaborating on an ultra-green academic building for New York’s Cooper Union that is designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification. The program for the nine-story facility mixes state-of-the-art laboratories, classrooms, a multipurpose auditorium, and a range of public and social spaces.
| Aug 11, 2010
Utah research facility reflects Native American architecture
A $130 million research facility is being built at University of Utah's Salt Lake City campus. The James L. Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building—a USTAR Innovation Center—is being designed by the Atlanta office of Lord Aeck & Sargent, in association with Salt-Lake City-based Architectural Nexus.
| Aug 11, 2010
Construction begins on Louisiana State Sports Hall of Fame
Heavy construction and foundation work has started on the new Louisiana State Sports Hall of Fame and Regional History Museum in Natchitoches, La. Designed by Trahan Architects, Baton Rouge, the $12 million, 28,000-sf museum will be clad in sinker cypress planks as a nod to the region’s rich timber legacy and to help control light, views, and ventilation throughout the facility.
| Aug 11, 2010
Modest recession for education construction
Construction spending for education expanded modestly but steadily through March, while at the same time growth for other institutional construction had stalled earlier in 2009. Education spending is now at or near the peak for this building cycle. The value of education starts is off 9% year-to-date compared to 2008.
