Texas big Slate of projects adding to wealth of McGovern Medical School at UTHealth

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he first class of 19 students entered what is now known as McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) in 1970. Located in the heart of the Texas Medical Center, the school was established by the Texas Legislature in 1969 to address the shortages of physicians and the then-untapped resources for medical education in Houston. get an in depth look at where they stand, we sat down with Clinton “Brooks” Herman, CEFP, PMP at UTHealth.

Give us a snapshot of one of your current projects.

There are many research lab projects going on, from a bio-safety cabinet swap, replacement of tunnel wash/autoclaves, integration of emergency power for an electron microscope, and starting the programming/design work for several large lab projects. All of these are for our McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, housed in our largest building on campus, which covers one million square feet.

Butterfly gardens, located at a research facility utilized with McGovern Medical School.

What were the goals of the project? How did they change when the pandemic hit?

Growing from a facility with no buildings to one of the nation’s outstanding centers of academic medicine, the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth continues to be devoted to medical education, research, quality patient care and community outreach—clocking in as one of the largest and most diverse medical schools in the United States. Students, who along with access to the latest technology, are taught with an emphasis on humanities, ethics, patient quality and safety. Affiliated with several inpatient hospitals and outpatient facilities, the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth provides a broad range of clinical services, including its primary teaching hospital, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, which recently was named the second top teaching hospital in the country. Today, there are various construction projects happening at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. To

Each of the projects are for world-renowned researchers seeking out breakthrough medical advances to share with the world. These projects were not affected by the pandemic directly, but it took a little more time to coordinate with the revised schedules our researchers/ staff/contractors working to maintain social distancing and safety for all. Pre-bid walks have also changed due to the current pandemic. To help reduce the number of people participating in pre-bid walks, our Procurement Team no longer attends. We also have asked contractors to limit the numbers of employees they are inviting to the pre-bid walk.

Tell us about the immediacy of the construction deadline. How did that factor into the planning?

The projects’ requirement for urgency is predicated on the fact that the researcher will likely not able to continue

DECEMBER 2020 — COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION & RENOVATION

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