MD Anderson and Vaughn Construction, as well as the project team of WHR Architects and Haynes Whaley Associates, celebrated a significant milestone with the topping out of Mid-Campus Building 1 (formally named the Administrative Support Building) on December 22, 2009, nearly one year to the day of the record-setting MAT foundation pour. The topping out celebration took place on the 5th floor of the building. Nearly 1200 attendants were on hand to enjoy the food, presentations, and hoisting of the 21 foot and 26 foot trees on top of the building.

The 26-story, $350 million project, currently scheduled for completion in 2012, will serve as home to the various MD Anderson employees who are currently occupying eight locations around the Med Center, as well as set the precedent for development and architecture for future Mid-Campus expansion. In addition to the MAT foundation concrete pour of 17,500 cubic yards on December 19, 2008, the building used another 105,000 cubic yards of concrete, 15,000 tons of rebar and 680,000 lbs and 200 miles of post-tensioning cables.  The project averaged 385 cubic yards of concrete per day, 7 days a week, with nearly 13,000 concrete trucks visting the site over a one year period.

In the early morning on Sunday, July 12, 2009, a helicopter lifted the last 30 ft section of the pipe-shaped spire into the air. Two steel workers, perched high up in a temporary “crow nest,” efficiently completed the bolted splice connection before the helicopter released its precarious load. This completes the final installation of the iconic architectural tiara and spire design atop the new Methodist Hospital Outpatient Center. The architectural design was accomplished by WHR Architects. The general contractor for the project is Hensel Phelps Construction Co..

The 1.6 million square feet new outpatient care facility is located in the Texas Medical Center at the intersection of Main, Fannin, and University. The project is a new 25-story facility that will provide 23-hour outpatient care services. The project consists of a basement that houses a high-bay truck court and two below-grade visitor valet parking levels, 12 levels of above-grade parking that offers parking for approximately 1,200 vehicles, and 11 levels of programmed spaces that contain state-of-the-art imaging, surgical and diagnostic suites, laboratories, offices, and support facilities.

The exterior architectural design of the Outpatient Care Center features a three-side curvilinear building perimeter, modeled after the Wankel combustion engine, gradually emerging from a rectangular building base. The Wankel shape terminates above the building’s roof in the form of a sloping screen wall with heights above the roof that vary from 12 ft on the east side to a maximum of 52 ft at the western-most building corner. The screen wall is crowned with a “tiara” that is shaped by a varying-geometry open lattice work with stainless steel panels finishes. Three pipe spires, located near the apex of the screen wall, further accentuate the tiara design. The tip of the tallest spire measures 565’-6” above the street level.

The spire sections consist of large-diameter steel pipes with prefinished high-performance paint coating to prevent corrosion. The pipe sections are spliced via bolted connections that have been designed in collaboration with the architects to achieve the desired appearance and yet offer the ease in field installation without welding that would have compromised the paint coating. Except for the last section of the tall spire, all sections were erected with the project tower crane. It was decided to dismantle the tower crane and to erect the last section with a helicopter because the spire final height would have been in conflict with the crane boom.

The unique design of the tiara and spires atop the building will make the Methodist Outpatient Care Center unequivocally the new landmark in the Texas Medical center.