{"id":224727,"date":"2024-04-17T11:49:15","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T15:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=id_project&p=224727"},"modified":"2024-04-17T11:49:18","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T15:49:18","slug":"tmc3-collaborative-building-by-elkus-manfredi-architects-houston","status":"publish","type":"id_project","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/projects\/tmc3-collaborative-building-by-elkus-manfredi-architects-houston\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside This Houston Healthcare Building Dedicated To Connectivity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Francesco Favaretto\u2019s Bombom chairs and Luca Nichetto\u2019s Luca sofa and tables form a seating vignette in the Allison Institute. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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April 17, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n

Words: <\/span>Michael Lassell<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography: <\/span>Eric Laignel<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Inside a Houston Healthcare Building Dedicated to Connectivity<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Everything\u2019s bigger in the Lone Star State. The Texas Medical Center in Houston is the largest such complex in the world as well as among its most highly regarded. Spanning more than 2 square miles, encompassing 61 different hospitals and institutions, it constitutes the eighth largest business district in the U.S., one that recently became even larger with the addition of TMC Helix Park, a 37-acre trailblazing life-sciences campus that will eventually include multiple laboratory and research buildings along with a convention center, hotel, an apartment tower, and retail space\u2014more than 5 million square feet of real estate in all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first structure, the four-story, 250,000-square-foot TMC3 Collaborative Building, opened in October 2023. Elkus Manfredi Architects<\/a>, the big Boston-based firm assigned the inaugural project as well as the master planning of Helix Park, has stats almost as impressive as the client\u2019s: It not only ranks number 48 among the Interior Design top 100 Giants but also 34th, 43rd, and 49th on the Hospitality, Sustainability, and Healthcare Giants lists, respectively. David P. Manfredi, CEO and founding principal along with the late Howard F. Elkus, describes TMC3 as \u201cboth the convening space for the Helix campus as well as a microcosm of the whole.\u201d Dedicated to connectivity and cooperation between and among researchers and private-sector partners, the facility is inspired by translational science: \u201cTraditionally, there\u2019s been a great divide between academic and commercial science, the biopharmaceuticals,\u201d Manfredi notes. \u201cThe translational science construct brings the two worlds together to move solutions from lab to market as fast as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discover The LEED Gold-Certified TMC3 Building<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The 12,000-square-foot space is topped with a ceramic fritted glass skylight and surrounded by tiers of open circulation corridors fronting glass-walled offices and labs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe model at TMC3 is to combine fully equipped laboratory space, promising startups, and organizations that offer seed capital and support in translational medicine,\u201d says Elkus Manfredi principal Elizabeth Lowrey, who led the interior architecture team. \u201cWe\u2019re shifting from a research mindset of \u2018mine\u2019 to one of \u2018ours.\u2019\u201d Thus, the building\u2019s 43,000 square feet of state-of-the-art laboratories are shared by three of TMC\u2019s founding institutions: the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Texas A&M University Health Science Center, and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The building itself, Manfredi continues, \u201cis almost square in plan, out of which is hollowed an atrium that serves as the town square for the whole campus, the agora for ideas.\u201d Throwing off the rectangular footprint slightly, the east facade describes a long, shallow curve that follows the arc of the adjacent garden\u2014one of five green spaces by landscape architect Mikyoung Kim that connect in a DNA-inspired double helix, a near 7-acre expanse that gives the campus its name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Centering on a 22-by-35-foot LED screen used for educational and cultural events as well as product presentations by the researchers and startup companies working at TMC3, the atrium has limestone flooring and is crisscrossed by a bridge and staircases connecting the upper levels. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As for the atrium, it\u2019s also strikingly expansive: 12,000 square feet of limestone-clad floor space topped by an almost equally large ceramic fritted glass skylight nearly 75 feet above. Fronted by deep balcony corridors, three encircling tiers of glass-walled laboratories and administrative offices overlook the huge volume, which is crisscrossed by a bridge and staircases linking the floors. Transparency and connectivity are more than metaphors here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to bleacher seating and a podium backed by a giant video screen, the atrium accommodates educational and cultural events, while oak slats covering the walls and balcony undersides bring warmth and texture to the imposing venue, as do the poured-in-place concrete walls surrounding the reception area. Dedicating so much cubic footage to an atrium might seem counterintuitive but, flooded with daylight, its vast dimensions and natural surfaces animate the whole building. \u201cYou walk in, and the generosity of light and space become palpable,\u201d Lowrey observes. \u201cThe materials bring a human touch to the scale, making the huge volume feel approachable and reassuring.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Executive-suite reception features MUT Design\u2019s Block seating, Marco Merendi & Diego Vencato\u2019s Caementum side tables, a customized Tidal B rug by Workshop\/APD, and a terrace with Lievore Altherr Molina\u2019s Leaf chairs. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The second and third stories contain the joint laboratories and adjacent administrative areas. The fourth floor houses the TMC executive suite\u2014a low key\u2013luxe environment of glossy whites and silver grays offset by marble flooring and wood or suede paneling\u2014partner-institution offices, and the James P. Allison Institute, a 14,000-square-foot cancer research lab named for the resident Nobel laureate. Furniture throughout is clean and modern, with a representative sampling of blue-chip pieces by Jasper Morrison, MUT Design, Luca Nichetto, and other contemporary luminaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As befits a medical center, the LEED Gold\u2013certified TMC3 building places a premium on the health and well-being of its occupants, most conspicuously by maximizing the physical relationship between the interiors and the natural world. \u201cWhen we began discussing our involvement with Helix Park back in 2019,\u201d Manfredi recalls, \u201cone of the first things I said was that the outdoor spaces are as important as the indoor ones.\u201d The curving east facade hosts an amphitheater-like array of staggered terraces\u2014sun-drenched, lushly planted, and furnished with pristine-white tables and chairs by Lievore Altherr Molina and Richard Schultz, they are an irresistibly welcoming al fresco amenity. And, of course, the ground floor offers immediate access to the green park where in good weather research teams can hold meetings under a canopy of shade trees. \u201cPeople are not just working out there\u2014they can have lunch together or a beer on Friday after work or movie nights and kite festivals,\u201d Manfredi concludes. \u201cMaking all those connections with colleagues and their families in a low-pressure, natural environment will accelerate the science.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take A Look At The TMC3 Collaborative Building In Houston<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The curved east facade sports a stack of pergola-shaded, planted terraces, this one furnished with Richard Schultz\u2019s 1966 chairs. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Gathered with Susanne Gr\u00f8nlund\u2019s Noomi lounge chair and Sebastian Wrong\u2019s Spun Light-F floor lamp, Morrison\u2019s Orla sofa echoes the curve of the executive corridor wall. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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On the Texas Medical Center campus in Houston, uplit custom oak grids host video screens in the entrance gallery to the James P. Allison Institute, a cancer research lab in the four-story TMC3 Collaborative Building by Elkus Manfredi Architects, also the master planner of the 37-acre TMC Helix Park in which the structure stands.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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More oak, in the form of ceiling slats, joins poured-concrete walls to cocoon the main reception desk, also custom. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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An internal balcony outfitted with Dan West\u2019s Cultivate table and Jasper Morrison\u2019s Alfi chairs overlooks stadium seating in the atrium. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The view from reception emphasizes the dynamic nature of the central volume, which rises nearly 75 feet. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Outside an executive office, corridor paneling is either oak veneer or high-gloss lacquer. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Custom graphics emblazon an Allison Institute corridor. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ultrasuede paneling enhances acoustics in the boardroom, where Kevin Stark\u2019s Cadre chairs line the custom etched glass\u2013topped conference table and Together benches by Eoos provide window seating. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Flooring is concrete in the institute\u2019s entrance gallery, as it is throughout TMC3\u2019s second and third floors. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"seating
Francesco Favaretto\u2019s Bombom chairs and Luca Nichetto\u2019s Luca sofa and tables form a seating vignette in the Allison Institute. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n