Cooley Building Receives Major Award

The AON Build America Award for one of the best new building projects in the nation has been granted to the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital – The Denton A. Cooley Building. Sponsored by the AON Corp. - a world leader in risk management, insurance brokerage, reinsurance and human capital consulting services - the Build America Award is an annual award determined by general contractors across the country and given to the very best construction projects in the nation. The award is based on a set of criteria which includes contribution to the community, excellence in client service, management and safety, state-of-the-art advancement, innovative techniques or materials and sensitivity to the environment. The construction team members received their official "I-beam" award March 21 at a ceremony hosted by the Associated General Contractors in Las Vegas.

"This is the first of many awards this facility is expected to win. It takes a strong, unified and organized team to develop a complex project such as this one successfully. The owners, architects, engineers and contractors collaborated throughout every step," said Bill Scott, senior vice president of Linbeck Construction Corp., which built the Cooley Building.

The team involved two owners, Texas Heart Institute and St. Luke’s, as well as their respective architects, Morris Architects and RTKL Associates. The Cooley Building construction project was managed by Pin Oak Interests. Formal dedication activities for the Cooley Building were held in January, and the state-of-the-art cardiovascular center became fully operational in March.

"The Cooley Building is a flagship facility for research, education and patient care in the Texas Medical Center. Of course, we’re proud to have such a distinguished setting in which to advance our study and treatment of cardiovascular disease. This award only adds to the aura of excitement present at the Texas Heart Institute," said Dr. Denton A. Cooley, founder, president and surgeon in chief of the institute, and chief of cardiovascular surgery at St. Luke’s.

Within the walls of the 10-story Cooley Building are a conference center, telemedicine broadcasting studios, a museum, a heart information center, surgical suites, research laboratories and patient-care floors.

"In designing the building, we started with and spent the bulk of our time focusing on what patients see and feel during their stay to create a healing environment, " said Michael Jhin, president and CEO of St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System. "For instance, a patient lying in bed has a view of the ceiling and the wall at the foot of the bed. So in patient rooms we have used different ceiling lights and acoustical tile to provide a more pleasing, aesthetic quality. The color palettes selected are drawn from nature. The base color is a warm wheat with accents of blue, green or plum. The fabrics used for draperies, bedspreads and furnishings incorporate rich patterns with natural colors. Natural wood finishes in rooms provide patients with a visual connection to the familiar and comfortable surroundings of home."

Windows, Jhin noted, are constructed so a patient can see out of them from bed. Additional shelving has been provided for plants and flowers on the footwall. There is also a marker board with a tackable surface and changeable artwork to help personalize the room for each patient. An additional personalization option available to patients is a decorative mobile, a form of kinetic art that hangs from the ceiling. The patient chair is a recliner designed specifically for the Cooley Building. It incorporates a customized headrest with adjustable "swings" similar to those used on commercial airlines’ passenger seats. The headrest adjusts in height to accommodate the shortest and tallest patients. When patients are transported to other destinations within the facility, there are also changes in the ceiling design and color to provide patients with visual aids. Outside the patient rooms, the corridors incorporate curved dropped ceilings, indirect lighting and wall sconces to "deinstitutionalize" the appearance of the interiors.

Because family members play a significant role in assisting patients during their stay, Jhin said special consideration has been given to their needs. Built-in seating for family and guests has been incorporated in the footwall for each patient bed, as well as an extra-long sleeper chair for overnight stays. Laptop computer users will find electrical and data access available next to the sleep chair, with a built-in side table and residential-style lamp for reading and working.

"What we have accomplished in the building of the new Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital – The Denton A. Cooley Building," said Jhin, "is a unique marriage of state-of-the-science and state-of-the-art, where technological advances have been combined with a concern for patients’ comfort and well-being."

This is the fourth AON Build America Award to be presented to Linbeck Construction. The company has previously won the award for its work on the Miami Arena (1989), Space Center Houston (1992), and the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth (1999).

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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