Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, El Paso Medical Science Building II
Features & Highlights
- 220,199-square-foot, five-story, cast in place concrete building
- Features 9,200-square-foot auditorium with capacity for up to 500 people and dividable into four separate classrooms
- Outdoor space for gathering features unique earthcast art landscape installation
Project Overview
The new $84 million, 219,900-square-foot Medical Sciences Building II on the campus of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, El Paso expands the campus research capabilities. The campus is the only health sciences center along the US-Mexico border that provides opportunities for collaboration among nursing, medical, dental and graduate research students.
The building has more than 87,000 square feet dedicated to research, including laboratories, offices and research administration. There is also a dining and food services area, library, reflection room for quiet space, classrooms, study rooms and administration space. The third floor of the building houses the Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine, which is equipped with 80 dental simulation stations with state-of-the-art technology to help students train and refine their expertise while in school.
The first floor houses the campus’ largest teaching auditorium – 9,200 square feet for up to 500 people. The space can be divided into four separate classrooms via Skyfold and Modernfold partitions and is equipped with programmable lighting controls, multiple projection screens, high-tech AV system and stadium-style seating. The space also is intended to be used for community functions and events. One of the building’s unique features is the bridge-like span across the top of the circular auditorium using four post-tensioned concrete girders 25 feet above the finished floor. A designer would usually avoid this scenario due to the vibration sensitivity of lab equipment on the two stories above. Sundt built a ‘bridge’ across the auditorium, inside of a building, and built out of post-tensioned concrete, which was self-performed by Sundt’s concrete division.
Like other campus facilities, the exterior mirrors the architecture of the Spanish Renaissance that is represented throughout all of the Texas Tech University System campuses, distinguished by ornate columns, red-tiled roofs and colossal archways. Students and faculty are able to study and collaborate outdoors too, with a beautiful area that includes two covered outdoor reading areas and an art landscape installation featuring an earthcast serpentine wall and custom-made stainless steel wind vanes with hand-blown illuminating glass bulbs.