New Research Building Gets “Green Light” to Go Ahead

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston recently received approval from The University of Texas Board of Regents to move forward with the architectural plans and design for a new Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases building, known by the acronym IMM.

Once a construction company is selected, the university plans to break ground by year’s end.

Designed by the Missouri firm of Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell Architects and Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates from Pennsylvania, the seven-story building will be located on a lot adjacent to the University Center Tower at 7000 Fannin St., facing Galen Street and backing up to the Brays Bayou.

Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell also designed the university’s new School of Nursing and Student Community Center building, which was recently “topped out.”

The planned IMM building will consist of two wings, one for technology and administrative offices and one for core research labs, with at least 65 percent of the useable space devoted to actual research.

Rives Taylor, university architect for the UT Health Science Center at Houston, said this high percentage of research space exceeds the UT System standard of 60 percent for research buildings and will enable the IMM to generate even more research dollars.

“We aim to be cost effective, using the right dollars for the most costly components - the highly technical equipment and labs needed for molecular and genetic research,” Taylor said.

The design features energy-efficient innovations such as sun screens and natural gas-powered microturbines. The two-wing structure of the building also will contribute to a lower energy climate control cost.

“The air that runs through a lab cannot be recycled, so rather than pay the cost of air for both wings, this design enables us to pump air through the offices and out to the inner courtyard where it can then be reused and pumped in through the labs,” Taylor said.

The first floor of the building will house a 200-seat auditorium and a large atrium for public events. The plans also feature a faculty conference suite and a room especially designed for collaborative discussion and discovery of scientific ideas.

The IMM, founded in 1995, is a research institute that seeks to investigate the cause of human diseases at the cellular and molecular levels using DNA and protein technologies to reveal disease mechanisms. Nobel Prize-winning scientist Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., is the IMM’s director, as well as the John S. Dunn Sr. Distinguished Chair in Medicine and Physiology and chairman of the department of integrative biology, pharmacology and physiology in the UT Medical School at Houston.

E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/04_15_03/page_22.html