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Dedication to Research
With dedication of its Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building,
UT Health Science Center
looks to new frontiers in science
The state-of-the-art Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building was formally dedicated Nov. 1 as the new home of The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM), which is part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
The $120-million Fayez S. Sarofim Research
Building, which houses The Brown
Foundation
Institute of Molecular Medicine
for the
Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM),
sparkles
with
light for its official dedication
on the
evening
of Nov. 1.
Photos by John Everett
At a donor recognition reception, University of Texas System Board of Regents Chairman James R. Huffines officially accepted and dedicated the new building.
“The world-class facility, which we’ve added to the UT System today, was designed to encourage the work of some of the world’s best minds as they advance the cause of better health and health care for Texas and the nation,” Huffines said. “The research done here – every discovery and every advance – will be a testament of generosity that helped to make it happen.”
The IMM is a research institute that seeks to investigate the causes of human diseases at the cellular and molecular levels using DNA and protein technologies to reveal disease mechanisms.
Design and construction of the eye-catching, 223,000-square-foot building at 1825 Pressler Street was funded by the $200-million New Frontiers Campaign, which concluded in January. The campaign set fundraising records and was seven times larger than any previous capital campaign in the history of the health science center.
“This is a night that I’ve been anticipating for over five years,” said UT Health Science Center President James T. Willerson, M.D., referring to the length of the campaign to fund the building.
“Your support of the New Frontiers Campaign, which has now raised a little over $239 million from all sources, has made this vision a reality. Thank you for making all of this possible,” Willerson said, addressing donors attending the reception.
The largest gifts were $25 million from building namesake Fayez S. Sarofim, founder and owner of the investment firm Fayez Sarofim & Co., and $20 million from The Brown Foundation Inc., for which the IMM is named.
The effort garnered five of the largest single gifts ever received by the UT Health Science Center and attracted 36 gifts or pledges of $1 million or more. The New Frontiers Campaign also raised more than the combined total of the university’s previous three campaigns.
UT Health Science Center President James T. Willerson,
M.D., presents Irma Gigli, M.D., deputy director of the IMM,
with two dozen yellow roses.
During the evening dedication ceremony, a donor recognition wall was unveiled for permanent display at the main entrance of the building. The wall, measuring nearly 12 feet tall by 31 feet long, honors both New Frontiers donors who contributed $1,000 or more, and founding donors to the creation of the IMM in the mid-1990s.
The New Frontiers Campaign, co-chaired by Development Board member Beth Robertson and by the late Ben Love, raised funds to both build and equip the IMM’s new $120-million home and to recruit some of the world’s finest scientists.
In recognition of her work, Willerson presented Robertson with an inscribed sculpture of a longhorn steer. “I give this to people I think are very special and she’s certainly one of those,” Willerson told the audience.
“It is altogether fitting that I present this to you as a token of deep respect, appreciation and affection for your leadership,” Willerson said to Robertson.
A cornerstone of the fundraising effort for the IMM was the creation of 27 endowments designed to support the institution in perpetuity and serve as recruiting incentives.
“Endowments were the real essence of the New Frontiers Campaign,” Robertson said. “While the majority of the campaign funds built extraordinary research space housed in a handsome building, the campaign was more about the ‘bright minds’ that fill the building, than bricks and mortar.”
New Frontiers Campaign chair Beth Robertson speaks
with University of Texas System Chancellor Mark G.
Yudof and UT Board of Regents Chairman James R.
Huffines, in front of the donor recognition wall during
the Nov. 1 donor reception.
C. Thomas Caskey, M.D., chief operating officer, director- and chief executive officer-elect of the IMM, said endowments are vital to recruitment efforts at the IMM. “The recruitment of leaders is critical for program expansion to mentor bright, rising young faculty at a time of international competition for talent,” Caskey said. “For example, an endowed chair indicates the IMM’s commitment to the field and thus facilitates recruitment of the best.”
Faculty, staff and researchers have been working in the new building since May, and new recruits continue to populate the IMM’s six main research centers, which are focused on cardiovascular diseases, cell signaling, human genetics, immunology and autoimmune diseases, protein chemistry, and vascular biology.
“The reason why this beautiful building is here is because of the wonderful discoveries that are going to take place in it. I am very proud to be a part of this,” Robertson said.
Willerson added, “We are actively recruiting some of the world’s best scientists in neuroscience, stem cell research, inflammation, metabolism, obesity, diabetes, genetic and proteomic discovery. We expect to have some 125 scientists working in the new building in the years to come, working collaboratively with basic and clinical scientists at all of our schools and working with scientists at academic institutions and hospitals throughout the Texas Medical Center, including Rice University and the University of Houston.”
The award-winning building design – by the Missouri-based firm Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell Architects (BNIM) and Pennsylvaniabased Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates – features energy-efficient innovations and a two-wing structure that should contribute to a lower energy cost for climate control. Vaughn Construction is the contractor.
Since its initial design was created in 2004, the building has garnered five awards from various divisions of the American Institute of Architects, including Best Education Building for 2006.
By Wendy K. Mohon, Institutional Advancement