Center to Provide for Campus-wide Education and Conference Needs.

 Construction is in full swing on a new, 40,000 square foot Education and Conference Center for the OU Health Sciences Center Campus. The center will be located adjacent to the new Children’s Atrium, providing an important resource for the entire campus.

“We are committed to building a state-of-the-art Education and Conference Center capable of serving the many diverse needs of the entire campus community,” said Dean Gandy, executive director of the University Hospitals Authority and Trust, which is providing the funding, oversight and management for the new facility. “A great deal of time, planning and effort has gone into planning the Center. We visited and researched comparable facilities around the country to ensure a facility, not only excellent in design, but in function as well.”

View the Education Center and Atrium Video

Ease of use and flexibility were key factors in developing the Center’s design, said Jorge Charneco, architect with Miles Associates.

“One of the greatest challenges was designing these flexible spaces within the constraints of the unique geometry of the existing site. We are optimistic that we have found creative ways to accentuate the building form without losing sight of the functional requirements,” he added.

The center features a three story design, which provides meeting, board room and auditorium space, featuring state-of-the-art video, computer and teleconferencing technologies. The building boasts unique, integrated technology, including video-conferencing capabilities for over 350 people and an equally impressive 25 LCD array.

“We are particularly proud of the split-tiered seating in the auditorium, which boasts table-top learning and conferencing in the front and stadium-style theatre seats in the back,” Charneco said.

The building will also include a media room that provides new and expanded opportunities for news coverage of campus researchers, physicians and other health care providers by local and national media.

“This campus has long been home to incredible research programs that are pushing the boundaries of science to advance treatments and discover cures. It is home to a team of outstanding physicians, some among the best in the world in their chosen specialty. And it is also leading the way in the training of our future doctors and other health care professionals. Now, this campus also will have the ability to better share the incredible story being written here with media outlets throughout Oklahoma, the nation and even the world,” said Theresa Green, media specialist for the Authority and Trust.

Interestingly, because of the existing structural foundations at the hospital and in order to preserve as much open space as possible, Charneco explained the Education and Conference Center was in some ways more challenging to design and build than its 14-story neighbor. It utilizes three “story height” Platt truss systems. Two of the trusses span a combined total of 114 feet and the third, which supports the third floor and a rooftop garden, spans 86 feet.

“These extremely tall and heavy members required the use of a crane with a greater capacity than the one used to construct the 14 story OU Children’s Physicians Medical Office Building,” Charneco remarked.

Significant emphasis was placed on integrating the design of the Education and Conference Center with both the Children’s Atrium, the OU Children’s Physicians building and The Children’s Hospital

“Special design attention was given to the spaces where the buildings connect.  These intersections can be best observed from the sixth floor atrium terrace, where the patterns in the terrazzo floor can be seen weaving through all three facilities,” Charneco said.

From an architectural standpoint, he added, the most unique feature of the building is the 10,000 square foot roof-top garden. The garden will instantly be green once constructed as a result of the use of pre-vegetated roof trays.