AUSTIN, Texas — Downtown Austin continues to see investment and growth in the health care and medical sector.
On Thursday, the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health held its grand opening. The nearly 65,000-square-foot building is nine stories high and situated near Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
It features research labs and has a number of programs including epidemiology, health promotion and behavioral sciences. The school has a goal of helping families and young children.
"The biggest benefit for the community, from a research perspective and community service perspective, has to do with child health," said Steven Kelder. "On top of that [we're here] to train students. That's why we try to make this building so friendly."
Downtown is an area that's really growing in the public health and medical sector. There's already the Dell Medical School and Dell Medical Center.
In a couple of years, the spot that used to be the Frank Erwin Center will transform into an MD Anderson Cancer Center facility.
"Interesting system ... It's very focused on the patient. It's terrifying to have cancer," Kelder said. "They make it so it's easy to find where you need to be and physicians and staff are great. I love that we have MD Anderson coming into this place too."
Providing public health and medical needs in a city that's growing and changing.