Designwire Daily: from the editors of Interior Design magazine

Methodist Hospital Research Institute by KPF & WHR Launches in Houston

by Deborah Wilk | Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Texas Medical Center—the world’s largest with 34 million square feet of patient care, education, and research space equaling the office space of what could be termed the country’s 12th largest business district—got even bigger this month with the opening of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute. Co-designed by Kohn Pederson Fox Associates and WHR Architects, the 12-story, 440,000-square-foot facility offers six floors of open research space, housing laboratories and administrative support for the study of cancer and heart and neurological diseases, among many other ailments and disorders. The facility will also be at the fore of innovative translational research, such as cell-based advances and genomics, in response to its sister hospital’s mission to implement such technologies in patient treatment. The buildings are connected by bridges on several floors.

The facility’s dramatic curved glass façade makes its impact on TMC’s north campus. Window-walled offices are situated above the lobby’s double height curtain-walled, terrazzo-floored atrium. A wood-paneled pre-function space on the lobby’s second level leads to a tk-seat theatre that accommodates meeting and presentations. Projection facilities are amended by powered tables with data ports, and acoustical wall fabric is hidden by clear-finished beech veneer.

Laboratories, located in the back of the building, are connected vertically by breakout areas, which encourage interdisciplinary communication between the 90 principal researchers and 800 post-doctoral candidates, trainees, and staff. A top-level terrace, used for receptions and events, offers views of this health-care facility that seems truly the size of Texas.

Images courtesy of Kohn Pederson Fox Associates.