Work5hop recently completed a comprehensive master plan update for Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG) which demonstrated a new collaboration-focused vision for the campus. We thought this might be a good opportunity to talk a bit about how good planning can relate on a deep level to how a university operates: who lives, studies, and works there, and how the campus shapes experiences.

As the first medical school west of the Mississippi, established in 1891, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston's (UTMB) history is compelling and unique, and the university has long wanted to establish a museum dedicated to its history and the anatomical samples which were historically used for teaching purposes.  The chosen site for the museum is a building universally called Old Red, formally known as the Ashbel Smith Building.  It is the first dedicated building at UTMB, and it housed the entirety of the university's teaching and adminstrative operations when it was built.  It's also one of the most significant buildings in the state – it was designed by Nicholas Clayton and completed in 1891.  Work5hop worked with a UTMB committee to develop a conceptual design and to perform an analysis of the space for its fitness as a museum.  Read on for more.