PAUL L. FOSTER SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

TTU - HSC El Paso

El Intercambio (The Interchange) is the central campus pedestrian mall and public art centerpiece of the Paul L. Foster SOM located at the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center campus in El Paso, TX.  Landscape Architect, Jason Hodges ASLA led the master planning, design and project management for the construction of the mall. 

The master plan for the central walk incorporates public art into a series of outdoor garden rooms of varying sizes and character.

Design collaboration with Artist Larry Kirkland resulted in the development of a presentation model, hardscape and planting delineation as well as tree massing concepts for the garden rooms. 

Kirkland developed sculptures for each garden room as well as engraved stone paving for the walkway.

Kirkland’s series of nested sculptures are fabricated in granite.  The art combines imagery from biology, vernacular culture and the growth/progression of the student/doctor mind, body and spirit.

The central green space links research and academic facilities, providing a unique experience at the core of the new campus.

Cross section model images like this one were useful in visualizing the cut and fill operation as well as analyzing alternative placement of trees and stone masonry seat walls in the design. 

The pedestrian mall traverses the central campus open space, dividing it into two sunken garden/ponds.  The ponds serve as multi-purpose open space and stormwater infiltration zones.  Turf is irrigated with sub-surface drip system.  Run-off from the entire 14-acre campus is directed from the buildings and parking lots into the sunken gardens where it ponds temporarily before infiltrating into the sandy soils of the Rio Grande Valley. 

This project was selected for the "Award of Excellence" by Public Art Network - Year in Review 2009.