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Houston Methodist Walter & Centennial Tower


Jax

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I personally liked the conceptual drawing more. It fits in with the street. I drive down Bertner every day to take my wife to the school of nursing which happens to be a great building. I know for a fact that the first phase of the conceptual building in this drawing was just finished last year. It is almost built exactly to this rendering with the limestone wall and the curved glass so my question is why did they decide to go in a different direction from where they were headed. That would be the smaller curved building in the left hand side of the conceptual drawing. To me this curved slender conceptual hospital really fits in with the surrounding buildings much better and follows the curve in the street and curve of the McGovern garage with its waterfall facade across the street. I also like the less bulky massing with the opportunity to use the garage roof as a green space. I wondered why they have been quietly removing the small structure on the backside of methodist so here is the answer. I   wish someone who works for the firm responsible for this change to explain why. Not to criticize but just get some insight on why the need to go in a different direction

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"Cheaper", will almost always be the answer. 

 

I think cheaper indeed. It looks like the original plan has been scaled back. The number of inpatient beds being added has dropped from the original announcement in 2007 -

 

"up to 700 beds in potentially 1.5 million square feet of space for inpatient care"

 

to the announcement last week -

 

"capacity for 390 beds, including 102 intensive care beds, expanded operating suites, hybrid suites and a dedicated cardiology floor with 14 interventional catheterization labs"

 

While the new design of the inpatient tower does look kind of retro and cool, it's kind of a bummer that the original design by KPF has been scrapped completely. It would have been consistent with the new research building just down the block and flow with the curve of the street. So, if the original KPF plan has been scrapped - has Methodist changed the architecture firm they are working with on this? Maybe to WHR (who designed their Outpatient Center on Fannin)?

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Is the Texas Medical Center the densest location in the State of Texas?

 

It's the densest location of Medical facilities not just in Texas, or the US, but the world.

 

If that's the density question you are asking then yes :P That's about the only thing though.

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I was talking with a PHD friend who works at UT in the med center and he said that the original charter for the med center

stated that only charitable institutions could be in the boundaries of the med center north of Holcombe and maybe east of Fannin. that is why most of the for profit projects were south of Holcombe. I wasn't aware of that and still not sure how accurate that is but it

is interesting if it is true. maybe someone who has the answer to that can verify this.

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This picture shows signs of the old service tunnels that once connected Favrot with TWU and the Fondren/Brown building. These connections were walled up after Topical Storm Allison flooded the basements of all these buildings. There is still one existing tunnel intact under Bellows Lane about where that white 2 wheel trailer is sitting. I'm sure it will be eliminated once the new building is constructed.

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Any updates on the new Methodist Tower?

 

Land is cleared and they're working on pilings and such. Lots of portable cranes/pile drivers but no tower crane yet. Really not a whole lot to see yet in terms of actual building structure, it's mostly just dirt still at this point.

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