Memphis Bioworks - Master Plan
Statement
Memphis Bioworks is the go-to organization in the mid-south for creating companies, jobs and investments in bioscience. It shares an urban super block with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in the heart of the Downtown Memphis Medical District which includes internationally recognized clinical research and educational institutions such as Methodist Le Bonheur
Healthcare, The Memphis VA Medical Center and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Strategy
Other master plans has been created and yet none could create a cohesive and understandable front door to the campus. We conducted visioning charrettes with stakeholders which led to a dynamic, operative framework for development and design of the Bioscience Research Park. A series of interconnected public spaces and sites for future buildings were part of the larger constellation of medical, academic, and research complexes that would inform the phases of development. Monumental link or zones provide functional landmarks that knit the public spaces together, and create opportunities for leisure and interaction. The key to the project lies in its flexibility and scale. Rather than proscribe a series of spaces or buildings that must be executed in a particular order, or a vision that is only complete once all phases are eventually implemented, the Research Park is a dynamic manifold of elements. The buildings, public spaces and infrastructure of the framework can be implemented in many different ways, responding to market forces with intelligence.
This flexibility extends beyond the boundaries of the park: existing and planned buildings and spaces are considered part of the framework, and can be connected to the future areas of the park with the same sensitivity while ultimately establishing an obvious and concise point of entry to the bioworks campus.
