Two new buildings – the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine and the John M. O’Quinn Law Building – will join the University of Houston campus this fall semester. The construction of the buildings, both located on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, required a team effort that included many departments from Administration and Finance.

From the beginning, departments in Administration and Finance were hands-on with the planning of the buildings and none more so than Facilities/Construction Management.

The department, as with all capital projects, is involved every step of the way. The process starts with the initial inception that includes discussions with Facilities/Construction Management planners, and designers. This process also includes preparing information for the State Legislative funding request, presenting the projects for approval from the Board of Regents, and managing building design and construction.
The projects did provide challenges for Facilities/Construction Management, and it had to do with timing. When both projects were getting off the ground, the COVID pandemic was ramping up.

“This presented a whole host of challenges in navigating the safety protocols to keep employees safe while keeping the projects moving forward,” said Facilities/Construction Management Assistant Vice Chancellor Nick Merry. “This was followed by the unprecedented supply chain and material availability issues facing the construction industry nationwide.”

Despite these challenges, Facilities/Construction Management forged ahead and met its opening date.

“Overcoming these challenges to ensure we met the opening required a dedicated team effort,” said Facilities/Construction Management Senior Associate Vice Chancellor/Associate Vice President David Oliver.

UH’s Fire Life & Safety department is also involved with the project at the designing phase of the project holding many meetings with the engineering firm to discuss specific safety code items. Once the schematic designs were done, Fire Life & Safety reviewed the plans for all the life safety systems in place.

“As they start the work, there are several different inspections that we do during the whole process of the buildings being built,” said Fire Life & Safety Director Chris McDonald.

“From when they start putting in firewalls, we look at the walls to make sure that they’ve sealed penetrations, installing sprinkler systems. And we test each floor to make sure that there are no leaks and that their sprinkler heads are in the right location.”

When the building nears completion, the final step for Fire Life & Safety is to test: every fire alarm device in the two buildings, the entire sprinkler system, the fire pump, emergency lights, and the ground fault circuit interrupters.

UIT was also a key department involved in the project. The area surrounding the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine is planned to be filled with more buildings. To prepare for this building and future construction projects, UIT installed two core network facilities to service the building. The two core network facilities will serve the future buildings, plus serve all the current network needs to enable Wi-Fi, security systems, and access controls among other critical services.

Additionally, in the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine, UIT installed over 120 security cameras, 90 Wi-Fi access points, 11 emergency phones, seven network facilities, and 30 switches. For the John M. O’Quinn Law Building, UIT installed 130 security cameras, 120 Wi-Fi access points, 10 emergency phones, five network facilities, and 40 switches

Public Art of the University of Houston System also had a role to play in finalizing the O’Quinn Law Building and College of Medicine. The College of Medicine will feature a major commission by Leo Villareal that is noteworthy for its technical aspects, as it is light-based and requires the artist to orchestrate a variety of sequences that bring it to life.

For the John M. O’Quinn Law Building, several pieces were selected by established artists such as Bert Long, Jr.—one of the founders of Project Row Houses—as well as several Houston-based artists including Adriana Corral, Jamal Cyrus, and Kaneem Smith.

The department and its committee commissioned a major work from Rick Lowe, another of the founders of Project Row Houses and a UH professor of Interdisciplinary Practice. 

Parking and Transportation Services also played a role in the construction of these facilities. With the addition of the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine, the department added 200 faculty, staff, and student parking spaces, and 25 visitor spaces. Furthermore, due to the College of Medicine’s distance from other campus buildings, Parking and Transportation added the building to its shuttle service route.

For the O’Quinn Law Building, the department brought 150 parking spaces back online that had been closed during construction. The 150 parking spaces have been added to the most desired zone parking lot – Zone C. Additionally, Parking and Transportation was able to add 11 new metered visitor parking spaces.

UH Dining also had a hand in ensuring the two buildings were ready for their opening debut this fall. The department added a market store to each building.

The O'Quinn Law Building's cashier-less market store will be open during building hours of operation. To shop in the frictionless market store, guests must log onto the Boost app, then scan the app when they walk in. Guests then shop and once they leave the store, their selected items will be automatically charged. The system is similar to the Tech Bridge market.

For the College of Medicine, the market has a self-checkout feature. For the convenience of building occupants, the market will be open during building hours of operation.

The Cougar Card office staff had a small role in the opening of the College of Medicine. The College of Medicine identification cards requires a specific designation, like the university’s College of Nursing. The Cougar Card office assisted the College of Medicine to ensure their students, nurses, doctors, and faculty had the appropriate designation.

The Division of Administration and Finance and its employees were instrumental every step of the way in the design, construction, and opening of these new building additions to our growing campus.