UT School of Nursing Building
Garners National "Green" Design Award
HOUSTON–(April 21, 2006)–The School of Nursing and Student Community Center, home of The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston, has been selected by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Committee on the Environment (COTE), for the national organization’s “Top 10 Green Projects Award” for 2006.
“It’s gratifying to see the School of Nursing receive the country’s most coveted green building award, and it is a testament to the vision of BNIM Architects, the university and the entire design team,” said Patricia L. Starck, D.S.N., dean of the UT School of Nursing at Houston. “The building continues to inspire its occupants – and it symbolizes one of the school’s most important aims, which is to provide our students and faculty with a healing and caring learning environment.”
Starck will attend the May 3 awards reception in Washington, D.C., where the winning projects also will be presented at the National Building Museum. Project displays will be featured in a traveling exhibit and will be shown at the AIA national convention in Los Angeles next month.
BNIM Architects, in partnership with San Antonio-based Lake Flato Architects, designed the facility with a focus on energy efficiency, increased air quality, improved natural daylighting, reduction of polluting emissions and run-off, and increased user satisfaction. The eight-story, $57-million building encompasses 195,000 sq. ft. The building includes approximately 20,000 sq. ft. of classrooms, a 200-seat auditorium, café and dining room, bookstore, student lounge, student government offices, research laboratory and faculty offices.
The largest green academic building in the Southwest, the facility is expected to receive a LEED® Gold rating. It is located in the Texas Medical Center at 6901 Bertner on a site adjacent to Grant Fay Park.
“We are pleased that the AIA/COTE has selected this project as a high performance building that is both healing and teaching – a building that can explain its own benefits to visitors,” said Steve McDowell, BNIM design principal and Principal-in-Charge. “Being selected from hundreds of entries by a jury of sustainable design experts for the most coveted green design award is truly an honor, and it speaks to the potential of sustainable architecture in and around Houston.”
AIA’s Committee on the Environment works to sustain and improve the environment by advancing and disseminating environmental knowledge and values, and advocating the best design practices to integrate built and natural systems to the profession, industry, and public.
The AIA/COTE Top 10 Green Projects are selected annually as exemplars of the standards and goals of sustainable design and construction.
This is the ninth award earned for the design of the School of Nursing and Student Community Center. The other eight design awards are:
- Recognized Value Award, DesignShare International Award for Innovative Schools
- Honor Award, AIA Kansas
- Honor Award, AIA Kansas City
- Honor Award for Excellence in Sustainable Design, AIA Kansas City
- Honor Award for Excellence in Sustainable Design, AIA Houston
- Honor Award, AIA Houston
- Merit Award, AIA Central States
- Honor Award, AIA San Antonio
For images of the School of Nursing and Student Community Center and more information, log on to: http://www.uthouston.edu/sonscc/.
Media Contact: David Bates
Media Hotline: 713-500-3030