Mohammad T. Karim, AIA Associate Principal Healthcare Environment Design Architecture Engineering Interiors Dallas Egan R. Gleason, Senior Project Architect Healthcare Environment Design Architecture Engineering Interiors Dallas

Major discoveries have been made in the detection and treatment of cancer. Also, improvements have been made in the comfort of patients undergoing current treatments. But what is the future of cancer treatment?

Research into molecular biology, particularly immunology research, holds the answer to the question of how our body fights diseases. Architects provide the place where this research will happen. In the spring of 1996 we began design of the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR), a facility directed by Jacques Banchereau.

A brilliant scientist and visionary director, Dr. Banchereau gave us an exacting program and demanded a lab incorporating the latest technology while also being a delightful and beautiful place to work. Modular planning was used in the layout, with flexibility and accessibility being paramount requirements of this highly complex building type. The finished building is a two-story, 45,000-square-foot structure that addresses the visual aspect of its location within the confines of a historical district. The interior finishout reflects the desire of the director that the laboratories be contemporary.

The key objective of the research at BIIR is to define the potential of dendritic cells as they relate to cancer. Dendritic cells are the commanders of the immune system. The first patient is now receiving injections of these cells, giving credence to the idea that cancer, in the foreseeable future, may be a disease of the past.

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