Dallas, Houston Expand Women's Facilities

Medical City Women's unveiled two new floors while Texas Woman's University kicked off construction of a new facility.

Vaughn, Kirksey and TWU Celebrate Ground Breaking

Texas Woman's University recently broke ground on its new Institute of Health Sciences - Houston Center in the Texas Medical Center. The project was designed by Kirksey Architecture and is being constructed by Vaughn Construction Co., both of Houston.

TWU hired Broaddus & Associates of Austin shortly after the project's inception to serve as program managers providing onsite management of design and construction and move coordination.

The building will be a 10-story, 202,000-sq.-ft. concrete frame structure with pre-cast panels emulating limestone and glass curtain wall comprised of 10 types of glass. The building will have two shell floors to accommodate future growth and instructional delivery. These floors will be unused until programs and funding have been identified.

The total project cost is $37.5 million with construction cost estimated at $27.1 million.

Bovis Lend Lease Adds Two Floors to Medical City Women's

Medical City recently unveiled two new floors added to the hospital's North Tower as part of a campus-wide $212 million expansion and renovation program that began in 2003 and will continue through 2007. The new eighth and ninth floors total 38,000 sq. ft. of space and feature 54 private rooms. Construction for the new floors was completed by the Dallas office of Bovis Lend Lease at a cost of approximately $21 million.

The eighth floor is dedicated to post-partum patients and the ninth to post operative care for patients undergoing gynecological surgery. With 29 additional private rooms on existing floors, there are now a total of 83 private rooms dedicated to post-partum and post-operative patients. Other women's services are located throughout the hospital.

Medical City Women's is a Center of Excellence that caters to female patients in order to simplify the delivery of care. Services include labor/delivery; antepartum and postpartum care; post-op treatment for a variety of surgeries; and women's wellness, screenings and gynecological care.

Each standard room on the new floors has an entertainment center with television, DVD and VCR; free Internet access; refrigerator and a spacious bath. Thoughtful touches include classic Corian countertops, built-in ledges to accommodate floral arrangements, a small desk area with chair and a soothing color palette.

Austin Commercial Breaks Ground on New LEED Project

Austin Commercial LP of Dallas recently announced it is serving as general contractor for a new green building in McKinney, which broke in February and will be completed in fall 2006. The office building will be a three-story, 61,800-sq.-ft., sustainable-designed structure and serve as an example of commercial-office developments' potential for environmental friendliness beginning with the construction. The building could qualify as the first privately developed LEED platinum building in the United States.

When complete, the building will use 60 percent less energy than a customary office building by utilizing geo-thermal heat pump HVAC systems, energy efficient lighting, sunshade devices, natural daylight, underfloor air distribution, solar hot water heating and an exhaust air heating and air conditioning recovery system. More than 10 percent of the energy use of will be produced by on-site photovoltaic panels. Green power, purchased from a wind farm, will supply the balance of any needed electrical energy.

More than 75 percent of the construction waste generated at this site will be recycled. More than 20 percent of the project's materials will be manufactured locally and more than 50 percent of the project's materials will contain recycled content.

Building tours to the public are planned after completion to provide educational opportunities and showcase the benefits of incorporating a sustainable design into commercial office development.

HDR, headquartered in Omaha, Neb., is the project's architect.

Cadence McShane Selected for Dallas ISD Expansion, Renovation

Dallas-based Cadence McShane Corp. recently announced it was selected by the Dallas Independent School District to complete renovation and expansion work at two schools as part of the district's $1.37 billion bond program. The firm will complete 218,922 sq. ft. of renovations and 29,770 sq. ft. of new classroom additions at W.T. White High School and W.H. Gaston Middle School. Completion is scheduled for spring 2006.

Medical City Dallas Holds Topping-Out Ceremony

Medical City Dallas Hospital, general contractor Bovis Lend Lease and health care architecture, design and consulting firm Jonathan Bailey recently held a topping out ceremony to celebrate on-time completion of the new, six-story critical care tower. The tower, part of phase one of an aggressive expansion plan, houses the hospital's emergency department, a 44-bed adult critical care unit and two 36-bed cardiac telemetry units. The emergency department is designed to handle 100,000 visits annually. The tower is engineered for expansion of up to six additional levels to accommodate future growth.

D.E. Harvey Kicks off 21 Waterway in Woodlands

D.E. Harvey Builders of Houston recently announced it would break ground on its seventeenth project in the Woodlands. The 103,000-sq.-ft. seven-story Class A Office Building at 21 Waterway includes space for retail/restaurant space on the lower level. The building will also feature two patios on the second level overlooking The Woodlands Waterway. The project is owned by The Woodlands Operating Co. and was designed by Ruxton, Md.-based Lucas Associates Architects. The architect of record is Gensler Architects headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Dallas and Houston.