The University of Texas Medical School at Houston broke ground in April 2005 on a new 208,500-sf research facility. The six-story, $78-million project will house four floors of research programs in neurobiology, the molecular biology of human pathogens, structural biology, and physiological genomics/systems biology. The top two floors of the facility will house a new animal care center to replace the one destroyed by Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. Designed by Watkins Hamilton Ross Architects of Houston, the facility will be constructed on the site of the now-demolished John H. Freeman Building.
The facility is the first constructed by the Medical School in thirty years. The $42-million animal care center will deliver in September 2006. The $18-million buildout for the four research floors is expected to deliver in February 2007. Complete occupancy is slated for September 2007. The project contractor is Vaughn Construction of Houston. The construction cost for the project is $60 million. Two grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling $6 million, as well as insurance proceeds, funding from the Texas Legislature, federal grants, and philanthropic gifts helped fund the facility's construction.
