Lab Partners

Health-Care Community Gets Home For Developing, Sharing Latest Science

By Sue Durio

The Dell Pediatric Research Institute could be called the building that collaboration built.

Its opening in November will create a venue for collaboration between institute researchers as well as clinicians, faculty and researchers throughout the University of Texas System and in Austin hospitals and clinics.

Collaboration also is making the fast-track project an on-time reality.

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Fast track demands team approach Within about a month of the announcement, UT selected Hensel Phelps Construction’s Southwest District office in Austin to oversee the design-build project. “Aligned with the conditions of the gift, we have three years to complete building, but we set a goal of 2 1/2 years,” says Stephen Harris, senior project manager in the UT System Office of Facilities Planning and Construction.

“The light-speed schedule was the biggest challenge,” says Hobie Horton, project manager with Hensel Phelps. “When we were awarded the project in late June, we didn’t have a master plan; we just knew it was a 150,000-sq-ft, approximately $60 million facility.”

To move the project forward quickly, Hensel Phelps in collaboration with experienced laboratory architects HOK Architects of Houston opted for proven design components. “The speed dictated that we work with what we knew worked, so a lot of the things we are doing are things we know worked in other labs,” Horton says. “It took some long hours those first few months to get it off the ground.”

Complicating the process was the fact that the city owns the property and UT has a long-term ground lease for the site. “We had to go through the typical permitting processes, and on top of that we had to abide by prescribed architectural requirements for the Mueller redevelopment site,” Horton says.

Construction began in November 2006, and despite Austin’s persistent rain last summer, it is on schedule for the contracted completion date of Nov. 15.

According to UT’s Harris, the facility will become the first institute to be built on the approximately 15.8-acre UT Health Research Campus. “As part of the 711-acre master plan for the former Robert Mueller Airport, some amount of that space was reserved for higher education use,” he says. “UT System was obligated to master plan a total of 780,000 sq ft, this being the first build-out of that plan.”

Contemporary and clean In concert with the Mueller redevelopment guidelines, the pediatric research facility highlights local products and natural design elements in a high-end, commercial look, Harris says. Exterior walls transition from locally quarried limestone at ground level to metal panels and plaster above. Custom colors on both the lower standing-seam metal roof and upper composition roof were chosen for reflectivity.

The building consists of three occupied floors below a penthouse level for mechanical equipment. “Our air-handling equipment is about the size of locomotives, and we have eight of them,” Horton says.

Natural and neutral colors give a warm Texas Hill Country ambience. To meet Mueller redevelopment requirements that buildings be LEED certified, the design-build team and owners say they have incorporated enough green components to garner LEED silver.

In addition to local products and roofing options, the team chose carpeting with recycled content and low-emitting VOCs. Hensel Phelps set up a construction waste management diversion plan and expects to recycle at least 75% of construction waste.

The surface-level parking includes spaces for high-occupancy vehicles and bike racks. The bike-friendly building also has showers for biking commuters.

The variable air volume control system, more efficient than the constant volume systems typically found in labs, generated LEED innovation credits. The air system consists of 100% outside air. “The air comes into the mechanical system, is introduced into the space and then fully exhausted,” Harris says. The VAV controls can monitor and adjust volume in specific spaces as needed, he adds.

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While natural lighting is a key component in green building, Harris says lab areas often don’t want natural light. “We designed those spaces to be mostly interior to the building and placed all administrative offices on exterior walls with windows,” he adds.

Flexible design The design team focused on flexibility in space use as well. “We moved fast and tried to design a flexible, versatile building for whatever may be done with that building in the future,” Harris says. Lab services, which drop from the ceiling, can easily move from area to area.

As the team moves into the final finish-out phases, Horton says strong collaboration will continue to pay off in meeting tight deadlines. “The amount of collaboration between the owners, and design-construction group and the subcontractors has been at a high level on this project,” he says. “The owners made decisions fast. The design team turned those decisions into documents and plans quickly, and the construction team was able to implement them quickly.” 

Key Players :

Owner: The University of Texas, Austin
Design Builder: Hensel Phelps Construction Co., Austin
Architect/Building/MEP Engineer: Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum Inc. (HOK), Houston
Lab Architect: Research Facilities Design, San Diego
Civil/Structural Engineer: Jaster Quintanilla & Associate, Austin
Lab MEP Engineer: Tom Green & Co. Engineers, Austin
Interior Design: The Bommarito Group, Austin and McKinney Architects, Austin
Data Communication/Security Design: Datacom Design Group Inc., Austin
LEED Consulting: Center for Maximum Building Performance, Austin
Landscape Architect: Coleman and Associates, Austin