Hospital executive Adam Lane tells the Houston Business Journal’s Jennifer Dawson that the easiest patients to move into the new Memorial Hermann Tower on I-10 will be . . . the babies, “because they don’t know where they’re going.”
Also, it sounds like some of the interiors might prove a little disorienting for suburban kids:
A hospital floor dedicated to children has been elaborately designed as a town center. The hallway is made to look like a street with curbs, grass and storefronts.
Fortunately, more familiar surroundings will be nearby: the building is connected by skybridge to the Memorial City Mall.
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Patients will be moved into the belly of the new building from Memorial Hermann’s adjacent North Tower this coming weekend. A new “massive robotic medication system,” will be installed a few days earlier — accompanied by heavy security. The hospital includes 18 private rooms for birthing babies.
The hospital will occupy only floors 2 through 7 of the 30-plus-story building at Gessner and I-10. Five full floors above that will remain empty for now. Doctors’ offices are on floors 13 through 24; Memorial Hermann system offices will occupy the building’s shoulders, on floors 25, 26, and 27.
What’s going to go on in that spiky head office? We can’t tell you. The top 6 floors belong to MetroNational, the building’s owner. Reports Dawson:
The secretive Houston-based developer will not reveal what goes on up there.
- New Memorial Hermann hospital delivers medical twins [Houston Business Journal]
- Previously in Swamplot: New Memorial Hermann Tower: Great Location for a Head Office, Most Grandiose Development: The Official Nominees
Photo: Jay Lee
27 Comments
That building is quite ugly. Maybe it is to scare away sickness and germs.
It is now , the new Transco tower. BW8 is the new 610. Up-up-town?
Definitely NOT the new Transco. I understand that you mean the center of Houston is shifting again, but architecturally, Transco was elegant while this looks like…..uh, well, uh…..my grandmother thinks it’s ugly. ’nuff said.
yeah its ugly, but its a tall building, way west, without any other high rises around. hell, barely any mid rises near, 3-4? it stands out and is visual reference point now
Did anybody else see the new crown lighting this weekend? New pulsing lights, neon, shafts of light into the sky… I think someone plugged their iPod into the lighting system. Either that, or one of the UFOs from “Close Encounters” landed on the building.
It could be worse. The crown could rotate, or dance.
Does anyone know who/what firm created this thing? I’d like to think they might develop some better taste, or alternatively we can laugh at them, or scorn them at the next AIA, RDA dinner.
Pulsing neon lights for passers-by….sounds dangerous! but makes sense. Yes, PLEASE look 40 stories up while you’re speeding down the highway. Gotta attract attention and generate new business!
The top belongs on a circular building. Don’t you think that they got this all wrong? I think Ugly Betty is filmed in there.
It reminds me of the top of the building in Ghostbusters after the Gozer the Gozerian goes berserk.
The design can’t possibly be that bad. People are talking about it. When was the last time anybody remarked on the designs of Energy Tower III or Energy Crossing II?
And tonight the light shafts are red and green… looks like Ninfas leased out the top floor.
^Red and Green. Christmas? no. Mexico? no. Italy? no. NINFA’s is the first that comes to mind with those colors. Now thats a Houstonian.
Morris does loads of work for MetroNational, so I suspect they are the culprits here. This building would receive a C- at best in any sophomore design studio.
It is also worth checking out the condo building they have going up east of Gessner. Another head scratcher…
And this in an era when so much interesting Architecture has been produced around the country….sigh
I thought the crown was somewhat reminiscent of the Wonkavator from the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory…had to have a golden ticket to go on THAT secret tour, so who knows, maybe in time MetroNational will offer something similar?
From Crowner:
yeah its ugly, but its a tall building, way west, without any other high rises around. hell, barely any mid rises near, 3-4? it stands out and is visual reference point now
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There are 5 midrise buildings close by, and two more under construction (one, the Cemex building was just completed). As bizarre as Memorial Hermann is, it seems to be part and parcel with the gradual densification of the Memorial City area. There are 3 midrise office buildings at Gessner and Barryknoll, a midrise hospital building on Gessner (just south of the Memorial herman office), a new hotel going up beside the Mem Hermann office, the new Cemex building on Gaylord, and new midrise apartments on Gayloard right next to the Cemex building.
Holy cr@p! Is that a fully functional death star? Will it vaporize toll lane interlopers?
HA HA HA, I am glad to see all of you talking about this building, that is all we wanted to accomplish. You should have seen it when the glass shoulders were on it, but of course this is the output of VE efforts. So continue to look and enjoy!
i worked nearby when they were building that top out (it’s poured-in-place reinforced concrete). i thought at first it might be a landing pad for a helicopter. but then they glazed it all in. it looks like a router bit now.
“The design can’t possibly be that bad. People are talking about it. When was the last time anybody remarked on the designs of Energy Tower III or Energy Crossing II?”
That’s because those are bland buildings. Nobody ever comments on bland architecture, only on really bad or on really good architecture. You be the judge on which category this falls into.
I feel that “really good” or “really bad” doesn’t matter a bit.
If it’s twitter-worthy it has cred.
Andres, what I’m getting at is that if a building is not noteworthy, then aesthetically-speaking, it may as well not exist. The vast majority of structures are not noteworthy.
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The old addage goes that 85% of success is just showing up. With respect to this subject, though, I think it’s closer to 97%.
john said: And tonight the light shafts are red and green… looks like Ninfas leased out the top floor.
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omg i can NOT drive by that bldg now w/o thinking NINFAS.
All this smug negativity! I think it is different and I like looking at it. I bet most of the comments are from small-minded design people who work in and design one story buildings. Have any of YOUR buildings gotten any press lately?
Just because someone thinks that a building is ugly does not mean that they are small minded and you don’t have to have designed a building to have an opinion.
…and “Smug Negativity”?….ok, that’s kinda accurate, but I am entitled to my smug negativity.
My husband insists they got the building design idea from the movie “Batman Forever.” DH even cued the clip for me to watch and… OMG! As if the building weren’t ugly enough already, now I can’t look at that light polluting eyesore without a sniggering giggle. Are we all destined to look at it and turn into mindless idiots? If you get a package in the mail from Metro National, don’t open it. :-)
The January Memorial City TIRZ #17 meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 26, 2009, in the HEB Community Room (NW corner Bunker Hill at IH-10 West) beginning at 7:30 A.M. If you missed the October meeting, you missed At-Large Councilmember Jolanda Jones taking on the TIRZ’s attorney and the TIRZ Chairman re a legal issue. In November, you would have heard board member Ken Arnold describe the wager he’s proposed to the honorable councilwoman. The December meeting was cancelled. Darn. This is good stuff. Be there! It’s your tax dollars at work. See http://www.houstontirz17.org for the posted agenda.
looks like a big chessboard piece.