Shepley Bulfinch designs 167,000 s/f health and biomedical science center

Shepley Bulfinch has begun schematic design for the new Health and Biomedical Science Center for the University of Houston's College of Optometry. The 167,600 s/f research and patient eye care center will include an ambulatory surgical center, a laser center, specialized research laboratories, offices, seminar spaces, a new conference facility, and classrooms. The facility will be located adjacent to the J. Davis Armistead Building on the southern end of the university's main campus. Housing an integrated clinical, teaching, and research program, the new building will dovetail into the existing facility in the Armistead Building. The Health and Biomedical Science Center is scheduled to begin construction in October, with a projected completion date late in 2012. Shepley Bulfinch is the project's design architect, in association with Bailey Architects of Houston. The two firms worked together on the 2006 renovation of Fondren Library, the major research library for Rice University in Houston.