Coming to an End

After a professional career of 42 years and spanning six decades, I have started the process of retiring. The search is on for my replacement here at Houston Methodist Hospital. I have agreed to continue in my current role, assist in the search for a new executive and help with on-boarding my replacement to insure a successful transition. 

 It feels very strange to be at this point. You know it is as inevitable as the sun rising and setting every day, but when it arrives you still wonder how it all happened so quickly.

 Looking back, it has been a great ride. I had the great privilege to work with hundreds of talented architects, engineers and builders as well as numerous regents, board members, university presidents, chancellors, deans, researchers, physicians, hospital executives and a sitting US President and First Lady. Together we built quite a portfolio of work to serve some of the finest institutions in the world. By the numbers it looks something like this.

 ·        22 years of building in the Texas Medical Center, including 19 major capital projects for M D Anderson, UT Houston Health Science Center and Houston Methodist.

·        Overseeing approximately $12 billion worth of capital projects between The University of Texas System and Houston Methodist.

·        Building 55% of the entire Houston Methodist facility platform – over 6.5 million square feet.

 The numbers do not really capture the thrill of this endeavor, however. It is the special projects, unique challenges and memorable moments that standout vividly, years after the projects are completed.

 ·        Helping UT Austin revive the Blanton Art Museum after the Herzog & de Meuron resignation and seeing the great work that Michael McKinnell was able to produce at the end of the South Mall. 

Selecting a new architect resulted in interviews with noted architects Michael Graves and Michael McKinnel. The selection team included UT President Larry Faulkner, Regents Tony Sanchez and Rita Clements, the Director of the Museum and me. I can still remember the interviews. Michael McKinnel gave a solo presentation. He started haltingly and I was worried at first. He then hit stride and gave the most tour-de-force presentation I have ever witnessed. At the end he received a spontaneous ovation from the selection committee – something I have never experienced in the hundreds of interviews I have attended. Sadly, Michael McKinnel died of COVID last March.

·        Being part of the UT Austin team that worked with Fred Clarke from Pelli Clarke Pelli to produce a new campus masterplan for UT Austin worthy of succeeding Paul Cret. It was a brilliant update with architectural guidelines intended to maintain greater overall campus cohesion. I do not think anyone anticipated the literalness with which they were subsequently applied, resulting in the departure of Herzog & de Meuron – see above.

·        Working with former President Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush to select the host campus, architect and builder for their Presidential Library and then serving on Mrs. Bush’s Design Committee. Years of planning and design meetings in Manhattan at Robert Stern’s office and at the White House are indelibly imprinted in my mind; standing in the Rose garden on an overcast November day waiting to meet with President Bush, a private tour of the White House decked out for Christmas.

The air and walls of the place exuded history. While waiting to get started on a design presentation in the map room of the White House I found myself absently studying a framed map of western Europe covered with small ovals, made of thin red tape. At the bottom is was date June 4th I believe, 1945 and titled “Pockets of German Resistance” – it was a briefing document for President Truman.

·        Changing the skyline of the Texas Medical Center with three towers for Houston Methodist (Outpatient Center, Research Institute and Walter Tower) and completing the planning and design for the fourth, Centennial Tower. I can remember seeing the Outpatient Center tower with its lighted, ornamental crown glowing Methodist blue for the first time at night from Highway 59.

·        Having the opportunity to help create a template for a new hospital and then having the opportunity to reuse the template as we expanded Houston Methodist. We created the template for our greenfield hospital in Katy that opened in 2011 and then reused the template at The Woodlands six years later with great success. The light-filled atriums of both still cause a sense of joy every time I visit either one.

·        Touring the first BSL4 lab to be built in Texas just after completion and prior to it going into operation at UT Medical Branch in Galveston and being thankful there were researchers willing to suit up to investigate the deadly pathogens the building was designed to so securely contain.

·        Working with Chuck Thomsen for almost two years to produce Program Management 2.0. Writing a book for me was exhausting. If it were not for Chuck pushing, I doubt it would have ever been completed.

·        Seeing the restored Arms of Christ mosaic for the first time in the new Bush Atrium of Walter Tower. We relocated and restored the 1963 icon of Methodist Hospital from its original exterior location to a new interior location in the newly constructed Bush Atrium. The mosaic is roughly 100 feet long, 16 feet tall and has 1 ½ million individual glass tiles. In the center is an arresting figure of Jesus Christ with his arms outstretched. It has been amazing to witness the emotional impact it has had on patients and visitors.

·        Attending a UT football game at the Royal Memorial stadium in the very late 90’s, after we completed the first major expansion in almost 50 years and being mesmerized by the scale and the new grandeur of the stadium.

·        Attending a “star party” at the new McDonald Observatory visitor center we created in 2002 in the Davis mountains, one of my very favorite places anywhere. The center combined ancient design concepts of astronomical orientation with modern, state of the art telescopes.

·        Seeing the new Walter Tower lighted at night, from its axial approach down Moursund Drive in the Texas Medical Center and getting chills.

·        Winning a $20 bet with the project executive for Walter Tower. I had asked if I could climb to the jib at the top of the tallest tower crane on Walter Tower during construction. It was 457 feet. He was glad to accommodate and casually asked how long I thought it would take me. I replied; “10 minutes”. Being about 25 years younger, he was deeply skeptical, hence the $20 bet. I did it in 7 minutes and 30 seconds.

 These are just a few of the memorable projects and buildings that come to mind from the decades. I am really looking forward to having more time at my discretion and living in Wimberley Texas, a beautiful, small town on the edge of the Texas hill country. I will deeply miss the planners, designers and the builders. I will miss working with wonderful, creative teams committed to solving challenging problems and the visionary institutional leaders that gave purpose to our work.

 I still plan to be involved in the occasional project if the right one comes my way so I hope to see many of you from time to time. 

 Take care,

Sid