The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is about to break ground on a 15ha life sciences campus in Houston with an investment value of $1.8bn.

TMC, which describes itself as “the largest medical city in the world”, is home to the world’s largest children’s hospital and cancer hospital. The centre estimates that it delivers a baby every 20 minutes, and begins a surgery every three minutes.

The TMC3 project is masterplanned by Boston-based Elkus Manfredi Architects. It will have 557,000 sq m of usable space and aims to be an environment where “innovators from healthcare, science, academia, government and industry can collaborate on new medicines, medical devices, diagnostic and digital health platforms and treatment solutions”.

The first phase of the project will create 88,000 sq m of space, 65,000 sq m of which will be a facility developed by Beacon Capital Partners and Braidwell, an investment firm that specialises in life sciences. Site work on this will begin before the end of the year.

Later phases will add a 521-room hotel with 6,000 sq m of conference space, a 350-unit residential tower, 2,000 parking spaces, and 7.6ha of public space including the TMC3 Helix Gardens. This last will be one of seven public parks in the campus that will take the form of a strand of DNA. It will be planted with a tree canopy, curved paths, water features, cafes and a central garden.

The development is the result of a collaboration between TMC, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas A&M University, the University of Texas Health Science Centre at Houston and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre.