Last week’s Texas A&M system board of regents meeting included approval of $182 million dollars of new building projects in Brazos County.
One of five projects is the $100 million dollar Instructional Laboratory and Innovative Learning Building, or ILSQ. Construction starts next month on the 140,000 square foot academic building on the west side of Wellborn Road, across the street from the recently opened Innovative Learning Classroom Building, or ILCB. According to information submitted to the regents, the ILSQ will have 20 general chemistry labs, eight organic chemistry labs, eight interdisciplinary art studios, and something called collaborative study spaces and maker spaces. The ILSQ “incorporates visual transparency to put science and art on display. Collaboration spaces are welcoming, modern, and high-tech, making students feel at home. These spaces include small and large study rooms, informal gathering such as alcoves, niches, and seating placed along hallways to support student collaboration, study, and movement between classes.”
The regents approved moving ahead with two projects on the RELLIS campus. Construction starts next February on the $25 million dollar BAM…or Ballistic Aero-Optics and Materials Facility. Next May, construction starts on the $42 million dollar Bush Combat Development Complex (BCDC) innovation proving grounds…something that is associated with the presence of the Army Futures Command.
On the flagship campus, two more residence halls are getting new heating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. A combined $15 million dollars of work starts next month at Lechner and Wells halls.
The morning after Houston escaped Hurricane Laura, the Texas A&M system broke ground on a $500 million dollar medical complex. Two new towers and a third will be renovated in the Texas Medical Center district. The complex will be home of the A&M college of engineering’s medicine program. The towers will also host research facilities, office and retail space, and student housing for Prairie View A&M’s college of nursing.
News release from the Texas A&M system about Houston’s Innovation Towers project:
The Texas A&M University System and Medistar Corporation broke ground on the half-billion dollar Texas A&M Innovation Plaza project today.
The Plaza, projected to be completed by 2024, is located on five acres adjacent to the Texas Medical Center at the corner of Holcombe Boulevard and Main Street in Houston. The towers expand The Texas A&M University System’s presence in the Texas Medical Center and allow the System to help meet the rising medical needs in Houston and the state.
Consisting of three towers — Discovery, Life and Horizon — Innovation Plaza will be home to the Texas A&M Engineering Medicine (EnMed) program and provide student housing for the Prairie View A&M University’s College of Nursing. It will feature research facilities, affordable student housing, office space, retail space and parking. Harvey Builders, the construction company of record, will construct the Life and Horizon towers to complement the Discovery Tower, which is a preexisting building that Texas A&M acquired and is in the process of renovating. The Discovery Tower is expected to be complete by the end of summer 2020.
“The pandemic has underlined the importance of medical technology and research,” said Chancellor John Sharp. “There is no better place for our groundbreaking EnMed program and other Texas A&M System initiatives to locate than the Texas Medical Center.”
The developer for the private-public partnership projects (P3) is Medistar Corporation, a long-time Houston-based developer. Infrastructure investment firm American Triple I Partners, founded by Texas A&M alum Henry Cisneros, is part of the financing team.