Texas Children’s Hospital
Feigin Center
BACKGROUND:
Feigin Center is a translational research building that supports the two-way transfer between basic science and patient care with the goal of better understanding diseases and to research new methods of treatment and prevention. As part of their Vision 2010 initiative, TCH sought to broaden their research capabilities with a vertical expansion.
CHALLENGE: Vertical expansion is always challenging, but successfully adding eight floors to a 12-story fully operational research building in a dense urban setting was complex. Because of thoughtful decisions during the building’s previous lives — a simple floor plate, 14-foot ceiling heights and a robust foundation to accommodate increased structural capacity — expansion was possible.
TRANSFORMATION:
The new Feigin Center sets the aesthetic for the institution’s new millennium campus as its tallest structure and iconic eastern gateway. The design accomplished the desired beacon effect as well as a progressive, artistic expression of the breakthrough activity within. Flexible open labs, office spaces and two-story gathering spaces increase “intellectual collisions” on the road toward advancing discoveries.