Best Health Care Architectural
Description
The William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital Third Tower Expansion is a 12 floor, 667,000 square foot expansion to an existing hospital building located at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. The building features an innovative W-shaped architecture inspired by resort-style layouts. Designed in the form-follows-function style, the floor plan enables a higher level of patient care, enhanced privacy and comfort, and a simplified visitor experience. The precast portion of the William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital building is composed of 892 pieces of architectural precast wall panels and spandrels – covering nearly 88,000 square feet.
Key design features
All of the precast panels share the same coloration and sandblasted texture, resulting in a clean, uniform appearance. The dark colors of the curtain wall contrast against the light-colored backdrop of the precast concrete panels. The precast panels and curtain walls were designed in a multi-planar fashion adding depth and character to the otherwise flat building surfaces. Another unique design feature of this project is that some of the precast panels have been designed so that in the future they can be removed and reset to allow for addition or replacement of large medical equipment.
Innovations or accomplishments using precast concrete
One major advantage of the precast concrete manufacturing process is that by maximizing the use of identical panels throughout the project. Through the reuse of precast molds, we were able to realize impressive cost savings when compared against other construction materials.
- Precast Manufacturer – Coreslab (Texas) inc. Cedar Park, TX
- Owner- The University of TX Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, TX
- Architect of Record – CallisonRTKL Inc. Dallas, TX
- Engineer of Record – Walter P. Moore Dallas, TX
- General Contractor – Austin Commercial Dallas, TX
