Where’s the University of Houston going to put its new College of Medicine? In the top 2 floors of this new structure behind the campus Rec Center, pictured here as construction completed this summer: the new Health and Biomedical Sciences Building 2. The College of Pharmacy is expected to complete its move into lower floors of the building by the end of this year. The adjacent tower (shown in the upper right of the photo below) is the 4-year-old Health and Biomedical Sciences Building (soon to be known as HBSB1), which, together with the older but also-attached Armistead Bldg. at the corner of Calhoun and Wheeler, houses the school’s College of Optometry.
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UH’s new College of Medicine will spend a few years on floors 8 and 9 of HBSB2 in pre-operating mode — then open officially in the fall of 2020 in the same spot, with a fledgling initial class of 30 students. The med school’s growth plan after that means it would need a new and larger home by 2022, according to a new report from the university.
- College of Medicine Report (PDF) [University of Houston]
- UH regents OK creation of medical school [Houston Chronicle]
Photos: Tellepsen Builders
In contrast, UT-Austin’s new Dell Medical School had its classroom building finished before the first class convened last year. Of course, UT has PUF, megabucks from Dell and a sweet deal with local taxpayers, not to mention several big appropriations from a legislature packed with UT grads. UH has none of these: it will be a long uphill climb, and other programs there will suffer.