HOUSTON METHODIST’S NEW SUBURBAN-STYLE TMC HELIPAD 
From reader Stephen J Alexander comes this pic of the new helistop that’s landed at the corner of Bertner Ave. and S. Braeswood, just over the southern (Brays Bayou) border from the Texas Medical Campus, as viewed during construction last month. It’s directly across the street from M.D. Anderson’s 25-story Mid Campus Building 1, but the helicopter landing pad is a project of Houston Methodist Hospital, according to permit info posted onsite; it sits on a portion of Methodist’s West Pavilion remote lot. Photo: Stephen J Alexander
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At least a half-mile from TMH itself; seems like a waste of good parking spaces.
@Al Binoni I thought the same thing. Also, there’s an existing FAA registration for a helistop at their regular campus, so I gotta wonder what this is about.
there is a similar helicopter pad in the parking lot of the women’s hospital.
Curious! As a former Methodist flight nurse who flew for 6 of the 7 years that Methdist had its own flight program and helicopter, ( late 1980’s- mid 1990’s) – I wonder also. Methodist spent millions to adapt and build its own FAA approved helipad on top of the Building next to the Alkek Pavilion and Dunn Tower. It’s still in use today, and frequently from other flight programs, including Memorial Herman’s Life Flight, bringing patients to Methodist from outlying areas. Before our permanent helipad was ready, we had to land in a field over by old HFD Station 33 – before the apartment craze… It was a nite mare, and totally complicated our patient transit time and more stress for both staff and patient with extra transfers, ambulances, etc. , our helipad was a huge blessing for all. Can only wonder if they remove the exsisting helipad, is the intention to use that gained “airspace” to extend the building higher? I know offsite transfers can be done, but my vote with a state of the art helipad in place now for nearly 20 years… Why risk it?
The helipad on the 11th story rooftop of Alkek Tower won’t be accessible once the crane’s are raised for their N. Campus expansion (http://www.houstonmethodist.org/hm-expansion). The new tower will have a helipad on the 22nd floor rooftop according to the general contractors stacking diagram (https://www.hunt-connect.com/mhnce/Pages/default.aspx).
The temporary “helistop” looks a like it’s a little less than 0.5 miles from the ER at Houston Methodist Hospital and is a straight shot up Bertner Ave.
From what I hear, there is some maintenance or renovations planned for the existing helipad at Methodist. This site near 1MC will likely only be used for a few months.