Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/1010198
8 T M C ยป P U L S E | A U G U S T 2 0 1 8 A HIGH A s a boy, James Corner grew increasingly passionate about geography, biology and art. When he listed these interests on a high school career test, landscape architecture popped up as a possible profession. Today, that student is the founder and director of James Corner Field Operations. The global landscape architecture and urban design firm is the engine behind some of America's highest- profile spaces, including a "pierscape" along Chicago's historic Navy Pier, and the High Line, an elevated public park built on a historic freight rail line in New York City's West Side. Now, Corner will bring his talents to Houston. His team will design a double helix-shaped park in the heart of TMC 3 , the Texas Medical Center's translational research campus that's set to break ground in 2019, with projected completion in 2022. The park sits atop a three-story structure modeled after the shape of DNA, often compared to a twisted ladder. "The Texas Medical Center's whole mission statement is about global health and well-being," Corner said. "We spent a lot of time thinking about what this might mean in terms of a program for this rooftop and sequence of spaces. Instead of just making a nice-looking place with plants and somewhere to sit, how could we actually have invi- tations embedded that invite new kinds of use?" Helix Park will be multi-sensory, Corner said, because humans see, hear and touch; they experience humidity, heat and cold. "These are all profound experiential dimensions of the human Landscape architect James Corner brings his vision to TMC 3 's Helix Park. Credit: Left: Peden Munk; Right and following page renderings, James Corner Field Operations