Texas A&M Innovation Plaza: Main At Holcombe Blvd.

[jmitch94]

I know it’s a medical school but which university is it? I just can’t tell from the renderings, not enough signage. 

[hindesky]

South side.

[hindesky]

East side.

[Highrise Tower]

[AREJAY]

Looks like some new updates on Medistar's site:

https://www.medistarcorp.com/in-development/

 

Quote

Groundbreaking for the student housing, parking, retail and plaza is scheduled for October 2020, with delivery on June 1, 2022.  The 515,000 square foot integrated medical plaza is scheduled to deliver in 1Q2023.
 

With the unmet needs of TAM's undergraduate and graduate students at the Texas Medical Center top-of-mind, Medistar's nearly 2 million square foot development program creates a unique destination campus that offers a mix of highly demanded, complementary uses to include:

STUDENT HOUSING TOWER, 19 STORIES

• Student Housing Units:  432
• Student Housing Beds:  720
• Mix of Units includes Studio, 1x1, 2x2 and 4x4 configurations
• Retail:  6,000 square feet at grade

INTEGRATED MEDICAL PLAZA, 17 STORIES (above garage)

• Medical, Clinical and Biomedical Offices:  515,000 square feet

STRUCTURED PARKING, 13 LEVELS

• Capacity:  2,800 vehicles
• Integrated Retail / Restaurants / Shops at Grade Level

 

[Highrise Tower]

Texas A&M names $550M TMC campus in Houston

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2020/05/19/texas-a-m-university-tmc-campus-name.html

 

Quote

 

The Texas A&M University System's $550 million campus adjacent to Houston's Texas Medical Center will be called Texas A&M Innovation Plaza.

 

The name was announced May 18, but plans for the campus were announced in February and date back to at least 2017.

 

“EnMed is just the first example of innovation that Texas A&M System intends to bring to the Texas A&M Innovation Plaza,” Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp said in a May 18 press release. “We are excited to have such a visible location in the Texas Medical Center.”

 

 

[monarch]

 

down goes the prospective height (50 floors) of our prospective and magnificent TMC... INNOVATION TOWER...

 

up goes the brand new NAME/MONIKER of the prospective aggie TMC development... TEXAS A&M INNOVATION PLAZA 

... strange coincidence?  are they changing the name/moniker of INNOVATION TOWER?  what is going on here...?

 

 

[ArtNsf]

I think this tower looks fantastic in the rendering !  I'd be proud to have it in the TMC.  AND, it looks way taller with more floors than are mentioned in the short clip from the full article shown above.  Of course I'd love to see it even taller, but by my visual counting, I see at least 48 floors on that tall tower but it could even be more than 50 since the resolution here isn't perfect on the image and I'm actually purposefully under counting floors since I can see them all that clearly.  In addition and although being an alumni, I do have several petty reasons to criticize TAMU, HOWEVER these all pale in comparison to such a good looking development and with great intentions to create a huge presence by putting this in place here in Houston in TMC.  On this project at least, I have to say bravo, indeed and I really hope all of the renderings I see come to fruition, especially the highest tower.  If it happens, it will be extremely prominent in the TMC and far beyond. 

 

Covid crisis or not, developers are still bully on Houston and for good reason.  Our population's diversity and education are combined as second to none in big cities in America.  And, we always seem to weather big national economic downturns better than other mega cities.  AND then, we tend to bounce back with a vengeance afterwards !  Our local and regional economy (thank goodness) is no longer 80% dependent on just OIL in the energy sector.  We've intelligently diversified in so many ways where the "oil" part is down, way down on the totem pole of importance since that terrible time in the early 80's.  This can also be attributed to the local giant energy companies themselves diversifying away from strictly oil related industry and towards alternative sources and ideas.  So, the doom and gloom of our economic outlook, at least locally, is most likely way overblown.  Not wanting to jinx any of our good fortune, however - nationally, and due to Covid19?  Not so much...

[hindesky]

https://today.tamu.edu/2020/05/18/texas-am-system-brands-landmark-campus-in-texas-medical-center/

 

Texas A&M System Brands Landmark Campus In Texas Medical Center

The five-acre mixed-use Texas A&M Innovation Plaza in Houston will be home to the Engineering Medicine program.

By Texas A&M University System Communications StaffMAY 18, 2020

 

 

The Texas A&M Innovation Plaza in the Texas Medical Center area will include the renovation of an 18-story building, plus $401 million in private sector money to build two new towers.

---

Texas A&M University System

 

The Texas A&M University System has announced the name of its landmark 5-acre campus in Houston, Texas, at the prominent intersection of Holcombe Boulevard and Main Street near the Texas Medical Center (TMC). Setting a new standard for collaboration in engineering, medicine, research and education is the first all-new mixed-use campus for the Texas A&M System in Houston: Texas A&M Innovation Plaza.

The Texas A&M University System initiated the new campus by acquiring and renovating an 18-story office building at 1020 Holcombe Blvd. to be the home for EnMed, a unique two-degree program that provides students the chance to earn a master’s degree in engineering from Texas A&M University and a medical degree from the Texas A&M College of Medicine.

The EnMed Building will open later this year.

Complementing the academic, research, discovery and innovation missions of the EnMed Building, Texas A&M Innovation Plaza will provide a welcoming, secure and vibrant experience to the campus population and visitors alike, with generous green spaces and lifestyle amenities not commonly found in the TMC area.

With groundbreaking scheduled in late 2020, the System’s public-private partnership (P3) developer is bringing additional investment of $401 million to fulfill unmet needs in the area with two complementary towers totaling an additional 1.9 million square feet.

“EnMed is just the first example of innovation that Texas A&M System intends to bring to the Texas A&M Innovation Plaza,” said Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp. “We are excited to have such a visible location in the Texas Medical Center.”

Scheduled to be complete in June 2022, a 19-story, 714-bed student housing tower will overlook a scenic plaza flanked by a large garage with retail and dining at grade with convenient, affordable parking for 2,800 vehicles. Texas A&M medical students and Prairie View A&M University nursing students will be given priority for housing, but students from other institutions could fill open slots, if available.

Scheduled to be delivered in January 2024 is a 17-story, 515,000 square-foot integrated medical building that will be built atop the 13-story parking structure. With generous, efficient floorplates and robust building technologies, this integrated medical building will be ideally suited to medical, clinical, biomedical, technology and office uses.

Accessible via Main Street, Holcombe Boulevard and Fannin Street, Texas A&M Innovation Plaza is also adjacent to the METRO TMC Station, providing convenient connectivity via bus and light rail service to the TMC, Museum District and Downtown Houston.

The developer for the P3 projects is Medistar Corporation. American Triple I Partners, founded by Texas A&M alum Henry Cisneros, is part of the financing team.

 

 

[jmitch94]

So you go to school to get an engineering degree and a medical degree? Why both and not one or the other? 

[hindesky]

1 hour ago, jmitch94 said:

So you go to school to get an engineering degree and a medical degree? Why both and not one or the other? 

[stuckINdallas]

6 hours ago, hindesky said:

Not only money but the medical field was way behind the tech curb and is now drastically changing with new technology being introduced. Doctors will increasingly need to know robotics and automation. Houston could be the new technology-medicine hotbed for innovation with all of our medical institutions adapting to new technologies in the field.

[texan]

10 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

So you go to school to get an engineering degree and a medical degree? Why both and not one or the other? 

 

The idea is that medicine needs more engineers in the field to make treatment more advanced and cheaper. (Aggie engineer here, student when this all was announced although I'm in aerospace, not medicine) They pitched it to us that in engineering school our way of thinking is changed to a creative problem solving capacity and that we seek to understand instead of just memorize (I've been told by friends that med school professors love having engineers in their classes for this reason). Rather than just knowing what the body does, in med school engineers seek to understand the how and why. They say this would allow us to use that creative problem solving ability to attack the problems head on. Instead of just providing treatment, physician engineers would constantly come up with new solutions- hardware, using data, or otherwise- to treat patients. Essentially, applying the problem solving ability of engineers to the medical field. Really what it is is broadening the pool that medicine pulls from, adding people of new backgrounds, which will definitely make the field better.

[jmitch94]

On 5/22/2020 at 8:42 AM, texan said:

 

The idea is that medicine needs more engineers in the field to make treatment more advanced and cheaper. (Aggie engineer here, student when this all was announced although I'm in aerospace, not medicine) They pitched it to us that in engineering school our way of thinking is changed to a creative problem solving capacity and that we seek to understand instead of just memorize (I've been told by friends that med school professors love having engineers in their classes for this reason). Rather than just knowing what the body does, in med school engineers seek to understand the how and why. They say this would allow us to use that creative problem solving ability to attack the problems head on. Instead of just providing treatment, physician engineers would constantly come up with new solutions- hardware, using data, or otherwise- to treat patients. Essentially, applying the problem solving ability of engineers to the medical field. Really what it is is broadening the pool that medicine pulls from, adding people of new backgrounds, which will definitely make the field better.

I’m genuinely not arguing here but isn’t that what bio-med and bio-tech degrees do already? I guess this is just at the PhD level?

[texan]

18 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

I’m genuinely not arguing here but isn’t that what bio-med and bio-tech degrees do already? I guess this is just at the PhD level?

I think the idea is to have the people actually providing the care and using the new innovations create them. In engineering, knowledge of operations and how the solution needs to work greatly benefits the design process. Bio-med and bio-tech engineers, while quite talented and useful, aren't in the trenches providing the care (unless of course, they also are MDs).

[Luminare]

15 minutes ago, texan said:

I think the idea is to have the people actually providing the care and using the new innovations create them. In engineering, knowledge of operations and how the solution needs to work greatly benefits the design process. Bio-med and bio-tech engineers, while quite talented and useful, aren't in the trenches providing the care (unless of course, they also are MDs).

 

I honestly think this needs to happen in Architecture as well. While there is a substantial argument to be made that there are a myriad of ways students benefit from getting a more general or isolated education in there various fields, many of the real issues we face today are from the fact that our institutions have become overly preoccupied with the abstract, and theoretical instead of what is actually happening in the real world. A way to help this is by bringing multiple disciplines together so they can have checks on one another and learn from one another, and push each other to actually apply there knowledge to what is actually happening in reality. In a way we need to start popping some bubbles or echochambers. People outside ones discipline can be incredibly useful to gain new insight into what one doesn't know or understand. Establishing more lines of communication is always better than cutting oneself off.

[Urbannizer]

[hindesky]

[Paco Jones]

Architect:

Kirksey Architecture

 

Developer:

Medistar

 

 

 

 

 

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

nice

[texan]

The Texas A&M University System has branded the buildings going up at Innovation Plaza. The building under renovation right now that will open later this year to support the EnMed program (Engineering Medicine) will be called Discovery Tower. The student housing complex will be called Life Tower. And the commercial building with the parking garage will be called Horizon Tower.

 

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/texas-am-system-brands-buildings-at-innovation-plaza-in-houston/2393968/

[hindesky]

 

[hindesky]

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Texas-A-M-hires-brokerage-firm-to-lease-30-story-15440277.php

 

Texas A&M hires brokerage firm to lease 30-story medical tower in TMC

 

Nancy Sarnoff July 28, 2020 Updated: July 28, 2020 2:16 p.m.

 

Texas A&M University and Houston-based hospital developer Medistar Corp. have hired JLL to lease the medical office tower planned as part of the university's $550 million complex to be built near the corner of Holcombe and Main Street in the Texas Medical Center.

The 30-story building -- called Horizon Tower -- will have 485,000 square feet of space dedicated to life sciences and medical offices. Construction is expected to start later this year.

The project is part of Texas A&M's Innovation Plaza, a campus development announced earlier this year designed to include an 18-story academic building for the university's engineering medicine program, which it is partnering on with Houston Methodist, a 19-story student housing facility and the Horizon medical tower.

 

The new building, at 6929 Main St., is slated to open in January 2024. It will have 17 floors of office space above 13 levels of parking.

JLL’s Tim Gregory and Angela Barber will lead leasing efforts.

 

 

 

 

[CREguy13]

Breaking ground a year early in this economic climate?  The demand must really be building... terrific news!

[Highrise Tower]

[AREJAY]

471 ft for the "IMP Building" and 268 ft for the student housing building 

 

https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external/searchAction.jsp?action=displayOECase&oeCaseID=446566214&row=288

https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external/searchAction.jsp?action=displayOECase&oeCaseID=446566207&row=287

 

Overview
Study (ASN): 2020-ASW-10281-OE Prior Study:   Status: Work In Progress		Received Date: 07/26/2020 Entered Date: 07/26/2020 Map: View Map
Construction Info		Structure Summary
Notice Of: CONSTR Duration: PERM    (Months: 0    Days: 0) Work Schedule: 08/27/2020  to  06/01/2023		Structure Type: Building Structure Name: TAMU Health Plaza - IMP Building FCC Number:
Structure Details		Height and Elevation
Latitude (NAD 83): 29° 42' 31.41" N Longitude (NAD 83): 95° 24' 10.58" W Datum: NAD 83 City: Houston State: TX Nearest County: Harris		Proposed Site Elevation: 50 Structure Height: 471 Total Height (AMSL): 521   Frequencies Low Freq High Freq Unit ERP Unit

 

 

Overview
Study (ASN): 2020-ASW-10280-OE Prior Study:   Status: Work In Progress		Received Date: 07/26/2020 Entered Date: 07/26/2020 Map: View Map
Construction Info		Structure Summary
Notice Of: CONSTR Duration: PERM    (Months: 0    Days: 0) Work Schedule: 08/27/2020  to  07/01/2022		Structure Type: Building Structure Name: TAMU Health Plaza - Student Housing FCC Number:
Structure Details		Height and Elevation
Latitude (NAD 83): 29° 42' 33.49" N Longitude (NAD 83): 95° 24' 09.85" W Datum: NAD 83 City: Houston State: TX Nearest County: Harris		Proposed Site Elevation: 51 Structure Height: 268 Total Height (AMSL): 319   Frequencies Low Freq High Freq Unit ERP Unit

 

[Lux]

John Sharp, Chancellor of Texas A&M System, just stated to the Texas A&M Board of Regents in open forum that the groundbreaking on the Texas A&M Innovation Plaza will occur next week. This public-private partnership is moving at warp speed with $401M in private investment!  Late 2020 is coming sooner than we imagined.

[hindesky]

I'm not seeing any hand railings on any floor but the first.

[Urbannizer]

 

 

[CaptainJilliams]

^ It looks like the tall tower in the first pic and the last pic have have different designs. Which render is the most recent version?

[Montrose1100]

9 minutes ago, CaptainJilliams said:

^ It looks like the tall tower in the first pic and the last pic have have different designs. Which render is the most recent version?

Who knows. They couldn't even bother to put the balconies window shades on the existing building.

 

I don't spot much difference in the pictures. The top feature just appears more glossy/glass like in the last one. 

[MarathonMan]

1 hour ago, CaptainJilliams said:

^ It looks like the tall tower in the first pic and the last pic have have different designs. Which render is the most recent version?

I think they are the same design, but the perspectives are different and one is a daytime render while the other is night.

[jmitch94]

1 hour ago, CaptainJilliams said:

^ It looks like the tall tower in the first pic and the last pic have have different designs. Which render is the most recent version?

The tallest building is the one on the right in the second picture. You are seeing it from the ground level and can’t see its height. Looks to be the same design as far as I can tell. 

Edited August 26, 2020 by jmitch94

[texan]

Just after Houston survived Laura, TAMUS broke ground today on the next phase of Innovation Plaza. The Texas A&M University System is wasting no time!
 

https://www.tamus.edu/texas-am-breaks-ground-on-innovation-plaza-in-texas-medical-center/

[Highrise Tower]

12 hours ago, texan said:

Just after Houston survived Laura, TAMUS broke ground today on the next phase of Innovation Plaza. The Texas A&M University System is wasting no time!
 

https://www.tamus.edu/texas-am-breaks-ground-on-innovation-plaza-in-texas-medical-center/

 

Looks like more fencing arrived on the site.

 

[hindesky]

The netting was raised just in case.Several of the construction trailers are gone, only 1 remains.

[hindesky]

All the fencing and trailers are gone.

[Highrise Tower]

[mls1202]

I say this as an Aggie, but this building's design is about as underwhelming as any building built at the main College Station A&M campus the last two decades.  I don't know if this is a problem of "government buildings" where pressures to keep costs down trump any sort of architectural statement a private company may be motivated to make.  At least it improves on what was there...

[Fortune]

7 hours ago, mls1202 said:

I say this as an Aggie, but this building's design is about as underwhelming as any building built at the main College Station A&M campus the last two decades.  I don't know if this is a problem of "government buildings" where pressures to keep costs down trump any sort of architectural statement a private company may be motivated to make.  At least it improves on what was there...

 

Its a renovation of an existing building what did you expect them to do?

[monarch]

1 hour ago, Fortune said:

 

Its a renovation of an existing building what did you expect them to do?

 

^^^ dude, stated that he was an "aggie".  sooooo...

[Montrose1100]

20 hours ago, mls1202 said:

I say this as an Aggie, but this building's design is about as underwhelming as any building built at the main College Station A&M campus the last two decades.  I don't know if this is a problem of "government buildings" where pressures to keep costs down trump any sort of architectural statement a private company may be motivated to make.  At least it improves on what was there...

 

 

Have you seen with your eyes every condo building Randall Davis has put up? How about the Fertitta Hotel? 

[j_cuevas713]

Yeah that’s that’s very Aggie of them. Yikes 😬 

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

On 9/20/2020 at 10:07 PM, Fortune said:

 

Its a renovation of an existing building what did you expect them to do?

a real Aggy Aggey Aggie would make orange things maroon and age the building using cow manure.

[Highrise Tower]

Road now blocked off by Harvey.

 

[hindesky]

I guess Harvey won the bid for the student housing building, that area is now fenced off.

 

 

[hindesky]

Texas A&M, Medistar break ground on $500M Texas Medical Center campus

 

By Olivia Pulsinelli  – Assistant managing editor, Houston Business Journal 

7 hours ago

 

The Texas A&M University System and Houston-based developer Medistar Corp. held a groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 1 for the university's $500 million campus in the Texas Medical Center area. 

Texas A&M Innovation Plaza is slated to be complete by 2024. It incorporates an existing tower and two new ones on 5 acres adjacent to the TMC at the corner of Holcombe Boulevard and Main Street. 

The main components of the campus are:

• Discovery Tower: Texas A&M acquired the 18-story office building at 1020 Holcombe Blvd. in 2017 for $145 million. That building was purchased to house the two-degree EnMed program, which provides students the chance to earn a master’s degree in engineering from Texas A&M University and a medical degree from the Texas A&M College of Medicine. Following renovations, Discovery Tower is slated to open later this year.
• Life Tower: The 19-story, 714-bed student housing tower is scheduled to be complete in June 2022. Texas A&M medical students and Prairie View A&M University nursing students will be given priority in Life Tower, but other students could fill any remaining units.
• Horizon Tower: Built atop a 13-story parking structure at 6929 Main St., the medical building will offer 485,000 square feet across 17 stories for life sciences, clinical, biomedical, technology and office uses. Horizon Tower is scheduled to deliver in January 2024, and JLL is handling leasing.

The campus will also feature a scenic plaza as well as retail and dining. The 13-story parking structure features 2,800 spots.

Harvey Builders, the construction company of record, is building Life Tower and Horizon Tower. Medistar is developing the public-private partnership projects, which will total $401 million in private investment. Infrastructure investment firm American Triple I Partners, founded by Texas A&M alum Henry Cisneros, is part of the financing team. 

“The pandemic has underlined the importance of medical technology and research,” TAMU System Chancellor John Sharp said in a press release. “There is no better place for our groundbreaking EnMed program and other Texas A&M System initiatives to locate than the Texas Medical Center.”

[Fortune]

Why is it going to take 4 years to build the Horizon Tower? Seems like a long construction timeframe for a 30 story building. 

[hindesky]

8 minutes ago, Fortune said:

Why is it going to take 4 years to build the Horizon Tower? Seems like a long construction timeframe for a 30 story building. 

IMHO they are doing one building at a time, up next is the students housing. Then they demo the existing parking garage for the 30 story building. 

[Highrise Tower]

They're digging up the surface lot now. Probably will remove a few trees shortly as well.