Texas A&M Health Science Center at Round Rock is the first building completed on the new, 50-acre master-planned campus in Round Rock, Texas for the Texas A&M University System. The four-story, 164,192 SF building holds technology-rich educational and clinical spaces, and a medical simulation center contains both a simulated clinic and a simulated hospital. This facility utilized a Public-Private Partnership (P3) as a method to fund construction.

This medical ‘theatre’ environment is designed to simulate a sense of reality to train students to have a heightened awareness of patient needs in a hospital-like environment. The hospital portion of the simulation center includes an operating room/trauma room, a labor and delivery room, nursery and scrub instruction space. Two wings that house the two distinct functions converge at a central atrium. The atrium forms a tall rotunda that identifies the building entry on the exterior, and becomes a hub for internal circulation and impromptu interaction.

The new 134,000 SF facility is used for clinical teaching, and includes a simulation center equipped with computer-programmed manikins, student life and student service support, administrative offices, and clinical research space for the Texas A&M Health Science Center/Scott & White Diabetes Institute. Approximately 33,000 SF is slated for use by Lone Star Circle of Care, a federally-qualified community health center, to operate clinics for Williamson County’s uninsured and underinsured residents. The clinics function as a major teaching site for HSC students.

The project was implemented utilizing a fast-track finance/design/construction delivery approach unique within the Texas A&M University System. Using this process, the total project schedule included initiation, master planning, programming, design and construction within 18 months. Broaddus & Associates served as the owner’s onsite representative, ensuring that the developer-provided building met the requirements of the Texas A&M University System and its Health Science Center. Broaddus & Associates’ project management role proved crucial for the Texas A&M University System, since the building was purchased from the developer immediately upon completion as a part of the use of a Public-Private Partnership to assist project funding.