UNT Health Science Center to break ground on new research facility
October 24,2016
Reposted from the Fort Worth Business Press
When it opens in 2018, the building going up along Camp Bowie Boulevard will be more than just the first new research facility at UNT Health Science Center in 14 years.
Ground will be broken Tuesday for the a new research facility at the University of North Texas Health Science Center that will focus on team-based learning.
“We’re building a model of team-based health care for Fort Worth,” said Myron Jacobson, PhD, Dean of the College of Pharmacy. “The layout of the education and research spaces in this building is designed to foster active, team-based learning.”
The ceremonial groundbreaking is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 25, and will include representatives from the Health Science Center, the University of North Texas System, Vaughn Construction and Treanor Architects.
Known as the Interdisciplinary Research and Education Building, the five-story facility will be home to the College of Pharmacy, the North Texas Eye Research Institute and the Institute for Molecular and Therapeutic Development. It is funded in part by $80 million from the Texas Legislature, pushed through with help from state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, and state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth.
About 53,000 square feet will be for research or instructional laboratories. It also will have classrooms, study space, multimedia learning areas, a café, student lounge and administrative offices. Also in the facility will be a 3,000-square-foot Healthcare Innovations Lab that will include a medical clinic and learning center with interactive kiosks for visitors. Initial plans call for a pharmacy, exam rooms, an instructional kitchen for healthy cooking classes and a blood lab. The building also will be wired for telemedicine and telepharmacy capabilities. The building will bring together more than a dozen scientists who are part of the North Texas Eye Research Institute, which boasts a comprehensive translational research program focused on developing new treatments for ocular diseases such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, optic neuritis and dry-eye disease.
It’s the first new research building at the Health Science Center since the Center for BioHealth, just east of the construction site, opened in 2004. Since then, UNTHSC’s annual research budget has increased from $18 million to more than $40 million per year.
Housed inside an exterior of precast concrete, limestone walls and glass panels will be a building whose very design reflects the Health Science Center’s approach to teamwork in education, research and health care.