Showing posts with label Oklahoma Health Center. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oklahoma Health Center. Show all posts
Monday, January 18, 2010
Vote for OMRF
OMRF's new Research Tower under construction in the Oklahoma Health Center northeast of downtown is up for the 2009 Excellence in Renewable Energy Award, a major environmental design award. I don't know how the voting is going to be done or what kind of committee is behind it, but maybe it would make a difference to get some online voter participation. You can vote online here.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Medical District update
Wow, the Oklahoma Health Center is really booming! Check it out. If you're interested in more reading, after much digging I found the previous updates I've done on the medical district. Here's the first, and here's the second.
This is an overview "skyline" shot from NE 6th Street and Laird. This field between Laird and Philips I was standing at had ground work being done on it, which I believe is for the 8-story Embassy Suites hotel planned along NE 8th behind the Oklahoma Health Center.
OU Cancer Research Institute on NE 10th going up.
New offices for the Oklahoma Blood Institute, Lincoln and NE 8th.
Still 3 buildings left at the PHF Research Park.
OMRF Research Tower under way behind NE 13th Street.
Dean McGee Eye Institute expansion, Lincoln and NE 10th.
OU Children's Hospital, NE 13th and Philips.
Ambulance Service facility on NE 8th.
OU College of Allied Health
OU Physician's Building, NE 8th and Philips..my favorite project in the OHC.
I think this is the OU School of Dentistry? Might be wrong on that. NE 8th and Laird.
And now some random shots from around the district..
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Just some thoughts on this part of OKC.. these projects are great. What they do for our economy is incredible..not to mention the "stimulus" impact from the construction, which if you total just 5 of these projects alone (Dean McGee Eye Institute, OBI, OMRF, and OU's Children's Hospital and Cancer Institute), it amounts to $534 million being invested just across I-235 from downtown.
And from a design perspective, these projects look really cool at first glance, too. I'm glad that OU and other medical research entities and hospitals are investing so much in this part of town, and I hope it continues. I look forward especially to seeing more mixed-uses develop along the boundary between the Oklahoma Health Center and Downtown OKC. I hope it gets streetcar, too. But if it does get streetcar, many of these facilities are going to have to completely redo the streetscape.
These facilities, although grand, have no interaction with the street level whatsoever. Even the new cancer facility has blank walls that face 8th coming from the east. The OU Children's Hospital has a massive setback behind a parking facility and a jumbled collection of lanes that I assume is for outpatient pickup and ambulance access. Worse yet, the new OMRF Tower, a brilliant environmental concept (and a LEED project), doesn't really have ANY street access, tucked behind OMRF's main building on NE 13th. The only way I could get close to it for taking pictures is through parking lots that connect to each other.
So I'm not even going to go into a more detailed urban planning critique, because it's bad. But I will just say that the OHC is adding a lot of good jobs, good projects otherwise, and it's giving Oklahoma something it needs, cutting-edge medical facilities. The closest level 1 cancer center currently is M.D. Anderson in Houston, but the new OU Cancer Institute will finally give Oklahoma a premier cancer institute. You can't estimate the value of the lives that will be saved by the medical advances coming out of this area of OKC, let alone the impact that has on the downtown area from an economic standpoint.
This is an overview "skyline" shot from NE 6th Street and Laird. This field between Laird and Philips I was standing at had ground work being done on it, which I believe is for the 8-story Embassy Suites hotel planned along NE 8th behind the Oklahoma Health Center.
OU Cancer Research Institute on NE 10th going up.
New offices for the Oklahoma Blood Institute, Lincoln and NE 8th.
Still 3 buildings left at the PHF Research Park.
OMRF Research Tower under way behind NE 13th Street.
Dean McGee Eye Institute expansion, Lincoln and NE 10th.
OU Children's Hospital, NE 13th and Philips.
Ambulance Service facility on NE 8th.
OU College of Allied Health
OU Physician's Building, NE 8th and Philips..my favorite project in the OHC.
I think this is the OU School of Dentistry? Might be wrong on that. NE 8th and Laird.
And now some random shots from around the district..
__________________________________
Just some thoughts on this part of OKC.. these projects are great. What they do for our economy is incredible..not to mention the "stimulus" impact from the construction, which if you total just 5 of these projects alone (Dean McGee Eye Institute, OBI, OMRF, and OU's Children's Hospital and Cancer Institute), it amounts to $534 million being invested just across I-235 from downtown.
And from a design perspective, these projects look really cool at first glance, too. I'm glad that OU and other medical research entities and hospitals are investing so much in this part of town, and I hope it continues. I look forward especially to seeing more mixed-uses develop along the boundary between the Oklahoma Health Center and Downtown OKC. I hope it gets streetcar, too. But if it does get streetcar, many of these facilities are going to have to completely redo the streetscape.
These facilities, although grand, have no interaction with the street level whatsoever. Even the new cancer facility has blank walls that face 8th coming from the east. The OU Children's Hospital has a massive setback behind a parking facility and a jumbled collection of lanes that I assume is for outpatient pickup and ambulance access. Worse yet, the new OMRF Tower, a brilliant environmental concept (and a LEED project), doesn't really have ANY street access, tucked behind OMRF's main building on NE 13th. The only way I could get close to it for taking pictures is through parking lots that connect to each other.
So I'm not even going to go into a more detailed urban planning critique, because it's bad. But I will just say that the OHC is adding a lot of good jobs, good projects otherwise, and it's giving Oklahoma something it needs, cutting-edge medical facilities. The closest level 1 cancer center currently is M.D. Anderson in Houston, but the new OU Cancer Institute will finally give Oklahoma a premier cancer institute. You can't estimate the value of the lives that will be saved by the medical advances coming out of this area of OKC, let alone the impact that has on the downtown area from an economic standpoint.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Oklahoma Health Center skyline
Not an easy shot to get, but worth it. The OHC skyline is starting to rise. Taken on I-40 east of downtown.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Professional follow-up on Medical District
A week or so ago I did a pictoral update on Medical District progress, which featured updates on OBI's new building, as well as several projects in the Oklahoma Health Center, such as the OU Children's Hospital, OMRF Research Tower, OU Cancer Institute, and more. I stressed the magnitude of the construction underway, a lot of which, people don't really notice..even people who talk about downtown a lot. This weekend, Steve Lackmeyer had a story run in the paper on the progress.. and obviously he did a much more professional job covering the same thing. More facts and research, quotes from people who actually know what they're talking about, and less pictures (the only downsize to professional caliber coverage, as it doesn't have the same flexibility where you can do a photo essay).
I completely missed getting pics of what is going on with the Embassy Suites. According to Joe Van Bullard in Steve's article, construction is set to start on the $25 million hotel. Same with the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association headquarters, which will be a $4 million HQ addition. The new OIPA project, which has largely flown under the radar, will be 3 stories tall and 20,000 sf large, pictured on the left. It broke ground November 18 (last year) at NE 4th and Lincoln, right across I-235 from the Block 42 development.
Steve's article hints to several new projects in the planning phase. The OHC Foundation's CEO, Hershel Lamirand, hinted to 3 new medical projects, and suggested that 8th Street (which is largely undeveloped at the moment) is going to become the new hot area for developments. Facts that back up the momentous occasion of the current building phase: 5 of the projects alone (Dean McGee Eye Institute, OBI, OMRF, and OU's Children's Hospital and Cancer Institute) come to a total price tag of $534 million. If someone had said there would be 5 new buildings built in Bricktown, totaling over half a billion dollars, there would be a parade (either that, or in the case of Bob Funk two years ago, someone would subvert it at City Hall).
The $534 million does not include the Embassy Suites, the OU College of Allied Health, OIPA, or any other projects that haven't been announced yet. This is the largest construction phase the OHC or the entire Medical District for that matter has seen since the 1970's, when OU first built the medical center. It's quite possible the pricetag could top $1 billion within a year, especially when you consider that parking is at a premium. Lamirand suggested more parking garages are to come, as well.
Jane Jenkins, president of Downtown OKC Inc., also cited some really cool facts in the article. 12,500 people are currently employed at the OHC, and we already know OMRF plans on adding 500-800 jobs when their research tower goes up. That's compared to about 40,000 people that work in the CBD, or in context of other medical centers.. the Texas Medical Center in Houston, world's largest concentration of research jobs, employs 75,000 people (guess I'm not capable of writing a post without mentioning Houston). The TMC always has billions of dollars in new construction underway at any given moment..in fact the Houston version of "Keep Austin Weird" is "Keep Houston Under Construction." In Raleigh-Durham's Research Triangle Park, 39,000 people are employed, spread across 157 different organizations. The South Texas Medical Center in San Antonio employs 27,000 people. Around 30,000 people work at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. The OHC is quite possibly a top 15 medical center, but it has a long ways to go in order to catch up.
What makes it a valuable tool, more so than the Research Triangle Park or South Texas Medical Center, is that the OHC is not located 10-15 miles from downtown, but rather just 1. It is a 5 minute walk from from the CBD to the OHC. In fact the Underground connects the two (the Capitol Complex segment that few people know about). It is this that makes the OHC more comparable to the Mayo complex or the TMC, even if only in city planning context. As the OHC grows, its presence will be a major contributor to Downtown OKC. People often say the only reason Rochester, MN even exists, and has a nice skyline, is the Mayo Clinic. The TMC is probably the best argument to bring up when people say Houston is dominated by oil. And so on. OKC will become more and more dependent on the OHC, which is a very good thing, in the long run.
I completely missed getting pics of what is going on with the Embassy Suites. According to Joe Van Bullard in Steve's article, construction is set to start on the $25 million hotel. Same with the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association headquarters, which will be a $4 million HQ addition. The new OIPA project, which has largely flown under the radar, will be 3 stories tall and 20,000 sf large, pictured on the left. It broke ground November 18 (last year) at NE 4th and Lincoln, right across I-235 from the Block 42 development.Steve's article hints to several new projects in the planning phase. The OHC Foundation's CEO, Hershel Lamirand, hinted to 3 new medical projects, and suggested that 8th Street (which is largely undeveloped at the moment) is going to become the new hot area for developments. Facts that back up the momentous occasion of the current building phase: 5 of the projects alone (Dean McGee Eye Institute, OBI, OMRF, and OU's Children's Hospital and Cancer Institute) come to a total price tag of $534 million. If someone had said there would be 5 new buildings built in Bricktown, totaling over half a billion dollars, there would be a parade (either that, or in the case of Bob Funk two years ago, someone would subvert it at City Hall).
The $534 million does not include the Embassy Suites, the OU College of Allied Health, OIPA, or any other projects that haven't been announced yet. This is the largest construction phase the OHC or the entire Medical District for that matter has seen since the 1970's, when OU first built the medical center. It's quite possible the pricetag could top $1 billion within a year, especially when you consider that parking is at a premium. Lamirand suggested more parking garages are to come, as well.
Jane Jenkins, president of Downtown OKC Inc., also cited some really cool facts in the article. 12,500 people are currently employed at the OHC, and we already know OMRF plans on adding 500-800 jobs when their research tower goes up. That's compared to about 40,000 people that work in the CBD, or in context of other medical centers.. the Texas Medical Center in Houston, world's largest concentration of research jobs, employs 75,000 people (guess I'm not capable of writing a post without mentioning Houston). The TMC always has billions of dollars in new construction underway at any given moment..in fact the Houston version of "Keep Austin Weird" is "Keep Houston Under Construction." In Raleigh-Durham's Research Triangle Park, 39,000 people are employed, spread across 157 different organizations. The South Texas Medical Center in San Antonio employs 27,000 people. Around 30,000 people work at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. The OHC is quite possibly a top 15 medical center, but it has a long ways to go in order to catch up.What makes it a valuable tool, more so than the Research Triangle Park or South Texas Medical Center, is that the OHC is not located 10-15 miles from downtown, but rather just 1. It is a 5 minute walk from from the CBD to the OHC. In fact the Underground connects the two (the Capitol Complex segment that few people know about). It is this that makes the OHC more comparable to the Mayo complex or the TMC, even if only in city planning context. As the OHC grows, its presence will be a major contributor to Downtown OKC. People often say the only reason Rochester, MN even exists, and has a nice skyline, is the Mayo Clinic. The TMC is probably the best argument to bring up when people say Houston is dominated by oil. And so on. OKC will become more and more dependent on the OHC, which is a very good thing, in the long run.
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