Process ― Health and Education

The process of planning, financing and building The University of Texas School of Nursing and Student Community Center in Houston was a long one, shepherded by John Porretto, then Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

The need for a permanent home for the nationally ranked School of Nursing was formally acknowledged in the Campus Master Plan in 1994. Preliminary programming was completed in early 1996.

In 1997 a joint presentation by Porretto and the president of the Health Science Center’s student body convinced the Texas Legislature to authorize $17.5 million in tuition revenue bonds for the new building.

Health Science Center students voted to tax themselves for the construction by increasing student fees, which contributed $27.5 million toward financing UT System revenue bonds. Another $5 million for financing the UT System revenue bonds came from the earnings of auxiliary enterprises, such as bookstores and cafeterias.

The university conducted a philanthropic capital campaign, which raised $10 million.

When formal programming for the building began in 1998, a Building Systems Assessment was undertaken. This important process assessed building tactics, products, styles and customer needs based on sustainable attributes and full-cost cost-accounting methods. More than 60 individuals participated, including:

  • Consultants who were experts in all areas of architecture, construction, economics, energy conservation, planning, estimating and building systems.
  • UT System representatives.
  • Vendors.
  • Representatives from the UT Health Science Center at Houston School of Nursing and the Office of Facilities, Planning and Development.
  • John Porretto.

Principles of Sustainability

Planning was based on fundamental principles of sustainability that are inextricable from the school’s mission and role as healers and good citizens:

  • Stewarding resources.
  • Doing no harm.
  • Benefiting others in the present and future.
  • Respecting the environment.

The principles helped to engender sound investments to achieve significant savings in operation and maintenance costs, making it possible to redirect dollars otherwise required for infrastructure to the core mission of the university ― the cultivation of knowledge.

During 2000, BNIM (Berkebile, Nelson, Immenschuh and McDowell) Architects of Kansas City, Missouri, were selected, and BNIM contracted with Lake|Flato Architects of San Antonio to form a partnership for the project. In 2001, the UT System Board of Regents approved the schematic design, and a groundbreaking was held in September 2001.

User Involvement

Representatives of the design team led a town hall meeting to carefully listen to and assure the users of the new building of their eagerness to work with them. Future occupants of the building were intimately involved in its planning, with user needs taking precedence over all other considerations.

By taking an integrated inside-out approach, the design team fashioned a space plan that reduced the total area of the building while giving each department more than they expected. By setting out to deliver a new benchmark in healthy buildings, certain design priorities were highlighted:

  • Flexibility.
  • Abundant daylighting.
  • Privacy and security.
  • Provision of wide-open public spaces with amenities for all to enjoy.

Ribbon-cutting for the new building occurred in June 2004.

 
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