Higher Education

Dallas architecture firm HKS to design new UT Austin teaching hospital

Seton Healthcare Family recently announced plans to build a new state-of-the-art teaching hospital at the University of Texas at Austin. The Dell Medical School will accept its first class in 2016, and the aging Brackenridge Hospital isn't up to the task.

Seton, along with parent company Ascension health, celebrated the news on June 18 with a press conference attended by Texas medical professionals and lawmakers. Texas Sen. Kirk Watson addressed the crowd, complimenting the voting public for choosing to raise taxes on themselves in November 2012 to make the plans for the Dell Medical School and its new teaching hospital a reality.

The teaching hospital comes as a partnership between three organizations: Seton Healthcare Family, Central Health (Travis County's health care district) and the UT Systems. Seton, also home to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center's Austin medical residency programs and Seton/UTSW Clinical Research Institute, will invest $245 million in building the hospital.

Dallas-based architecture firm HKS Inc was selected to lead the project. The firm has vast experience in designing and developing children's hospitals, emergency departments and cancer centers. Among others, HKS built the Connecticut Children's Hospital, Parker Adventist Hospital and the University of Texas at Dallas Center for Brain Health.

"Seton has a track record for opening hospitals on time and within budget," said Charles Barnett, executive board chair of Seton Healthcare Family board of trustees. "What [the three organizations] have done individually is impressive, but what we will be able to do collectively will be transformational."

"The new medical school campus will be part of our academic campus, and this will be a powerful connection," said UT President Bill Powers. "Our medical students will be walking distance from some of the most innovative research in the world — not only in medicine but in pharmacy, chemistry, medical business systems and biomedical engineering."

There are no current plans to demolish Brackenridge Hospital. It will continue to function until the new teaching hospital is built and plans are made to move operations there. After the move, the Brackenridge may be repurposed for other uses yet to be determined.

unspecified

Coworking News

New coworking space to open in Dallas' Oak Lawn neighborhood

Office Evolution

A coworking space is opening in Dallas in a central location: Office Evolution, a Louisville-based coworking chain, will open what a release says is a "state-of-the-art coworking space" at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. #360 in Dallas at the southeast corner of Lemmon Avenue.

No details on what makes it state-of-the-art, but construction is ongoing and an opening is anticipated in mid-October.

Office Evolution was founded in 2003 as a shared workspace-coworking environment, cultivated on the principles of "Ohana," the Hawaiian tradition that references family working toward a common goal. (The founder was from Hawaii.)

The company started out in Boulder, Colorado, then relocated its headquarters to Louisville. It's an affiliated brand of United Franchise Group, and is part of The Vast Coworking Group, which specializes in franchising within the coworking industry. All of their locations are franchised.

The Dallas location is owned by franchisee Michael Pickering, a Dallas native who runs a family-owned indoor soccer facility in Dallas. (There are two other Office Evolution locations in the DFW area in McKinney and Southlake, owned by different franchisees.)

They're describing the Dallas location at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. as "Turtle Creek," although its location at Oak Lawn and Lemmon really puts it at the epicenter of Oak Lawn. (To further complicate matters, the building previously and incorrectly described its address as "Uptown.")

It's a seven-story building in which the majority of tenants are doctor and medical offices.

Office Evolution rates include a coworking day pass for $25, plus "flex" office options starting at $200 a month for 20 hours, up to $550 a month for 80 hours.

Amenities of the building that are also accessible to Office Evolution customers include a front desk; a 1,000-square-foot fitness center; covered parking; and on-site security six days a week.

According to a spokesperson, Pickering and his team put $1.2 million into the renovation to transform the space, which occupies most of the fourth floor where it will span 9,240 square feet of space with 41 total offices — one of which is earmarked as an "on-demand office" for the professional on the go.

trends oak lawn openings