TWU Plans State-of-the-Art Houston Campus

TWU Times - Fall 2004

Texas Woman's University is taking its leadership role in health care to the next level with construction of a state-of-the-art urban campus in the Texas Medical Center. The new campus will prepare the state's next generation of nurses, physical and occupational therapists and nutritionists to meet the evolving health needs of Texas.

"TWU has had a distinguished presence at the Texas Medical Center for more than 40 years," said TWU Chancellor and President Dr. Ann Stuart. "The new center will allow us to continue that tradition by giving students an exceptional facility in which to learn and become highly trained health care providers for the citizens of Texas."

TWU broke ground in February 2005 on a 10-story, 202,000 square-foot "campus in one building," which will open in 2006. The site is at the southern gateway to the Texas Medical Center and is bordered by South Main, Holcolmbe and Fannin streets.

The need for the new center is driven partly by changes in health care education, as well as a 32-percent increase in enrollment at the Houston Center since 2001. Health care is calling for a newly trained professional -- one who knows how to work in a team environment in which a group of physicians, nurses, dieticians, therapists and technicians evaluate and treat patients.

"The new facility will prepare TWU students to work in that environment," said Linda Loveless Hughes, M.D., chair and presiding officer of the TWU Board of Regents. "TWU has always been quick to recognize emerging developments in the allied health fields and pioneer initiatives to meet health care education needs. The new Houston Center is the latest example of preparing today's students to meet tomorrow's patient care needs."

Kirksey Architects of Houston is designing the new campus to be functional, yet flexible, to serve the university for the next 75 to 100 years.

"This building is all about flexibility," said Wes Good, executive vice president at Kirksey. "We have provided numerous combinations of teaching and lab spaces of differing scales and proportions to accept the teaching methods of today and to flex into future teaching schemes."

For example, seminar rooms will be designed for traditional instruction, conferences, video conferencing and distance learning. Classrooms will be located on every academic floor of the building, which also will include several 120-seat lecture halls and a 250-seat auditorium.

TWU opened its Houston campus in 1960 by expanding its nursing program to the Texas Medical Center. Today, more than 1,200 students majoring in nursing, physical therapy, library science, health care administration, occupational therapy and nutrition are enrolled at the Houston Center. The new campus will allow TWU eventually to more than double its Houston enrollment to 3,000 students.

"TWU has been an important part of the Texas Medical Center, training health care providers who work in nearly all the institutions of the TMC," said Dr. Richard Wainerdi, president, CEO and COO of the Texas Medical Center. "This new building will bring the latest of educational technology to the Texas Woman's University program at the Medical Center. And this is an excellent new location for TWU, providing easy access to the teaching hospitals of the Texas Medical Center."

The new campus' construction is a model public-private partnership. After learning The Methodist Hospital was interested in expansion but restricted by its current site, Chancellor Stuart initiated discussions with Ron Girotto, president and CEO of The Methodist Hospital System. Those discussions led to an arrangement in which TWU agreed to exchange its current site on Freeman Boulevard for the South Main site owned by The Methodist Hospital.

"We have enjoyed a partnership with TWU over the years and are eager to continue that affiliation with this arrangement, which allows both institutions to grow and better serve our communities," said Girotto. "We've supported TWU through the years with adjunct faculty -- our first private-public partnership with the university -- and we're building on that relationship with this new endeavor."