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For years I have been wondering if Sears will ever do something with this eyesore located in midtown. It has so much potential, I guess at one point it was actually considered a beautiful building. Sears really needs to think about bringing it back to its original form. Something needs to be done. I would prefer to preserve the building, instead of razing it . What do you all think? Article found in the Chronicle today. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/5924010.html ''It's hideous!" fumes my friend V., warming up to one of his favorite rants: the unbearable ugliness of the Sears on Main Street. "It's right there on the light-rail line! At the entrance to the Museum District! At one of the few places where Houston can look good to visitors!" V., I have to admit, has a point. Sears' tan metal siding, blotched with graffiti cover-up, gives the building's upper floors the beaten-down air of an aging ministorage unit. But even that beats the urban battle fortifications at ground level. Someone, it appears, worked hard to make the department store defensible, able to repel invading hordes of shoppers intoxicated by Vanessa Hudgens' back-to-school ads. At the Wheeler side of the building, two sets of glass double doors, blacked out and locked during business hours, present an ominous face to the street. Opaque gray film makes the official entrance's glass doors, facing Main, only a little less scary. Bricks fill almost all the former display windows; burglar bars and more of that gray film cover the plate glass that survived. Only the most intrepid seekers of Kenmore appliances would dare breach such a bulwark. What's the deal, V. wonders. Does Sears think that the urban shoppers that store serves deserve less than, say, the suburbanites at the Memorial City Mall? And for that matter, hasn't someone at Sears noticed that Midtown has gentrified around the store? Isn't there a retail audience yearning to be better served? "Don't just return," exhorts the Hudgens back-to-school ad for Sears. "Arrive." V. would like that Sears to do just that. ...

Rice announced the $30 million gift for College #11, Duncan College. Along with new residential college #10, McMurtry College, there will be two new LEED certified buildings for Rice (and its first Gold certification). http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.as...;SnID=417075778 http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories...63&ana=e_du

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I've just taken an interest in Rice University. Has there ever been any year(s) that it won any championship? The only pro football player who comes to my mind who attended Rice was Tommy Kramer. When I attended the University of Arkansas from 1984-86, I remember that Rice University was in the same conference.

Looking on satellite, where is the next area TMC will expand? Rice owns property directly across from the TMC. Would the two ever come to an agreement? Spin-off of this thread: Could TMC Development Ever Spill Into Hermann Park?

The highly visible plot of land on Rice's campus on the corner of Main St and University Blvd. will house The Collaborative Research Center. Designed to be LEED certified by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, the tower will contain 477,000 square feet for class/lab space for bioscience and biotech research. Rice will operate the center in conjunction with Baylor, MD Anderson, UT Health Science, Texas Children's and a host of other TMC institutions. The building will have 3 levels of underground parking and 10,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space that faces Main St. Plans call for the design to allow for the addition of another tower on top of this one and another on adjacent land...

https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/71846 Rice owns a lot of land off the Highway 90 feeder. I went on a new running route and stopped by. Looks like dirt is being moved at the back of the property. Expansion or maintenance related?

Just thought Id pass this along. Please join us for the Rice Design Alliance's Civic Forum 2019. This year we are taking on the urgent topic of urban obsolescence and the importance of maintaining, preserving, and reusing the historic fabric of our cities. At a critical moment in Houston's urban growth, what is the value of architecture in our city and our region and why should we care about preserving Houston's identity through its urban past? While some might argue that doing away with the past can be a sound business solution, is that really the case and does nostalgia really have anything to do with it? Through the analysis of some of Houston's most relevant examples, Obsolescence will discuss the overarching factors that influence how we deal with change in the built environment - from regulations and tax policy, to cultural and political attitudes - all in an era in which preservation strategies are also acutely threatened by the environmental challenges of climate change. YOU ARE INVITED! Tuesday, April 23 5:00 p.m. Reception 6:00 p.m. Civic Forum Brown Auditorium The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 1001 Bissonnet St. Houston, TX 77005 Admission is free and open to the public. Generous support for the Civic Forum 2019 reception is provided by the Astrodome Conservancy. www.ricedesignalliance.org @rdahouston

HOUSTON – (Aug. 5, 2009) – Sarah Whiting, a member of the Princeton University School of Architecture faculty and an expert in urban and architectural theory, has been named dean of the Rice University School of Architecture. Whiting will take the helm Jan. 1, 2010, from John Casbarian, the school's longtime associate dean who is serving as dean until Dec. 31, 2009. Lars Lerup stepped down as dean earlier this year after 16 years and will return to Rice in 2010 as a professor. “Sarah Whiting’s strengths as a teacher, author and designer are clear, and she brings abundant energy and intellect to Rice,” President David Leebron said. “Her aspirations for the School of Architecture align perfectly with the goals we set for Rice in the Vision for the Second Century, in particular our commitment to broaden and deepen our interaction with our home city of Houston. Under Sarah's leadership, we expect our already acclaimed school to be at the forefront of innovation in architecture education and enterprise.” Whiting, a native of Evanston, Ill., comes to Rice with extensive experience. Before joining Princeton in 2005, she was at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design for six years. Prior to that, she taught at the University of Kentucky, the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Florida. She earned her Bachelor of Arts at Yale, a master of architecture at Princeton and her Ph.D. in the history, theory and criticism of art, architecture and urban form at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a principal of WW Architecture, a firm she co-founded with her husband, Ron Witte, she is currently working on projects for the drama division of the Juilliard School in New York and the Golden House, a private residence in Princeton, N.J. Before forming WW, she worked with Rem Koolhaas at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, Netherlands, where she was a designer on a number of architectural, urban and writing projects, including the master planning of Euralille, a business center in Lille, France, that opened in 1994. Perhaps best known for her professional criticism, Whiting has published dozens of articles on urban and architectural theory. In addition to editing several journals, she has edited books on Ignasi de Solà-Morales and James Carpenter and is the series editor of "POINT," a new architectural book series to be published by Princeton University Press next spring. She is the author of the forthcoming book "Superblock City." "I feel the variety of her experiences is a real asset," said Rice Provost Eugene Levy. "She's been on the faculty of a diverse set of institutions, which has fostered a broad set of perceptions and openness to thinking about the challenges of the discipline and the challenges of leadership that will be extremely valuable." "Leading the Rice School of Architecture is a dream job,” Whiting said. “Because it is small, everyone — faculty and students alike — is engaged. The dean is not a distanced administrator like at big architecture schools, but is right in there focusing the school’s ambition.” Whiting calls architecture "a public form of culture." "Architecture can -- has to -- invigorate the public realm," she said. "This is a two-pronged project: It is an intellectual project for academia and an immediate project for practice." Whiting takes over a school that has earned a sterling reputation in recent years. The School of Architecture was ranked No. 8 in the nation by the Design Futures Council in January and has been among the top 10 programs for the last decade. The school's graduate program has consistently been among the country's top 20. She could not help but notice that Rice University was named last week as the Princeton Review's No. 1 school for "best quality of life" and last month as one of the Chronicle of Higher Education's “Great Colleges to Work For.” “Both were absolute affirmations of what I sensed when I came to campus," she said. "Everything felt just right — poised for new possibilities. I can’t wait to take on those new horizons come January.”

Can someone help me out with identifying Block 442? I came across mention of this in the MRA meeting minutes: https://midtownhouston.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/MRA-Board-packet-07.26.2018-WEBSITE.pdf

As Houstonians gather weekly at farmers markets and community gardens and urban farms sprout everywhere from corner lots to utility corridors to former industrial sites, the city seems host to a renewed passion for a habit of dwelling that feeds the spirit and the body. This spring, the Rice Design Alliance invites you to “Nourish,” a tour of six contemporary houses with edible gardens, created by architects, landscape architects, and designers. “If our kitchen is the heart of our house,” says tour chair and landscape architect Flora Yeh of Mirador Group, “our edible garden would be a nurturing extension. The homes on this tour share an integral theme, a way of life.” “Nourish: An Architecture Tour of Houses and Edible Gardens,” RDA’s 41st annual architecture tour, takes place from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 9, and Sunday, April 10. It features the following houses: 4523 TeasNatalye Appel + Associates Architects, 2015Landscape: RH Factor 3312 UniversityStrasser Design, 2016 2709 Albans1941; English + Associates Architects, 2010 1514 BanksLantz Full Circle, 2012 1603 Cherryhurst1922; GSMA, formerly Glassman Shoemake Maldonado Architects, Inc., 2009, 2013Landscape: Grove Hill Farm 748 ArlingtonJay Baker Architects, 2003, 2012Landscape: Fischer Schalles You can see more info at our website and buy tickets online.

At a time when Houston has begun to reposition its bayous as an amenity, transforming them from the utility of drainage ditches into the beauty of hundreds of miles of connected linear parks with Bayou Greenways, and when the impending reconfiguration of the Pierce Elevated around Downtown presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to improve the city, the Rice School of Architecture and the Rice Design Alliance present Projective Infrastructures. Curated by Christopher Hight, Associate Professor of the Rice School of Architecture, this series will bring three internationally recognized landscape architects to help Houstonians continue to consider how the spaces between our buildings — our infrastructures — might be where the future health of our cities, and our citizens, will be found. Click here to purchase series tickets. Wednesday, January 27 Chris Reed Founding Principal, STOSS Associate Professor in Practice, Harvard Graduate School of Design Among many other projects, Reed’s firm STOSS designed a vision for the Trinity Riverfront, which combines commercial, residential, recreational, ecological, and environmental interventions to bring the river closer to the city, and the city closer to the river. He is also co-editor of a recent book of essays and drawings, Projective Ecologies. Wednesday, February 10 Christophe Girot Director, Atelier Girot Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture, ETH Zurich Girot designed Invaliden Park, Berlin, one of the first open public spaces between East and West Berlin, which was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 2005. Wednesday, February 17 Diana Balmori, FASLA Principal, Balmori Associates Balmori Associates has won a competition for a Cool Gardens that was installed in Winnipeg and has also launched a floating experimental vegetable garden in the Gowanus Canal, a Superfund site, in Brooklyn. Presently, the firm is a finalist in a competition to reprogram the space underneath a Downtown Cleveland elevated freeway. All lectures will be held at 7 p.m. in the Brown Auditorium in the Caroline Wiess Law Building at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. A pre-lecture reception will begin at 6 p.m. The MFA,H, is located at 1001 Bissonnet. No guaranteed seating for ticket holders after 6:50 p.m. Additional parking at the museum is available until 7p.m. for $6 in the museum garage located at the corner of Binz and Fannin Streets. Series Tickets: $20 – RDA, MFAH members $15 – Senior citizens 65 years and older $10 – Students with identification $35 – Others Single Tickets (upon availability, sold 30 minutes prior to the lecture) $7 – RDA, MFAH members Senior citizens 65 years and older Students with identification $15 – Others RDA will make special accommodations for anyone needing assistance to attend a lecture. A minimum of two weeks is appreciated. Call Mary Beth Woiccak, Assistant Director, Programs, at (713) 348-5583.

RDA's annual design charrette, 1:1: A Plaza for the New Big Brothers Big Sisters HQ, is scheduled for Saturday, August 1, at Hanszen College at Rice University. Organized by rdAGENTS, this year’s charrette challenges participants to conceptualize a highly visible part of the new three-story headquarters, designed by Agency-Agency and now under construction on Washington Avenue, of Greater Houston Big Brothers Big Sisters. The leadership of BBBS has discussed with rdAGENTS the intention to continue working with the winning team to realize their design and incorporate it into the building. Charrette participants will receive the full program detailing the challenge and presenting specific considerations when they arrive the morning of August 1. The competition will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Architects, designers, planners, developers, artists, and individuals in teams of up to five people are invited to participate. Fees range from $25 for RDA members and $35 for non-members and will cover the cost of breakfast, lunch, and refreshments throughout the day. Download the registration form here. A site visit on Saturday, July 25, will precede the charrette. Participants will be able to tour the location and take photographs. The time and meeting place for the site visit will be announced at a later date. Results of the charrette will be on display and jurors will announce awards in Anderson Hall at a reception on Monday, August 3, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.

Some people were talking in another thread about the current "arms race" going on amongst major universities. Some of us are fresh out of college (or maybe still in school) who have seen the arms race first hand, others are older and have watched from a different perspective as their alma mater jumped into this ongoing competition for the finest facilities. What are everyones feelings on the arms race? Is it good for the schools? Which Texas school is winning this race?

Story: http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/121814aab.html Pictures: http://www.riceowls.com/view.gal?id=171772

The Rice Design Alliance will accept applications from January 12 through April 6 to the 16th annual Initiatives for Houston grants program for students and faculty of the Rice School of Architecture, the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, the School of Architecture at Prairie View A&M University, and the Department of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University. RDA will make separate awards of up to $5,000 each to a student winner(s) and a faculty winner(s). Please visit our website to download the app. RDA's Initiatives for Houston program focuses on Houston’s built environment, its history, present condition, and future development. A variety of regional projects are considered, including historic research, speculative studies, problem-solving and planning projects, and documentary studies of the conditions of the city and its architecture. Proposals are evaluated for their potential to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the city and/or the region. Projects must describe a dissemination component, which can be in the form of a paper or manuscript, exhibit, video, or other presentation. In addition, the results of the project could be presented by the grantees in a public lecture or published in Cite: The Architecture + Design Review of Houston. Awards of up to $5,000 are available for projects to be completed in one year. More than one proposal in each category, student or faculty, can be funded. Past award-winning proposals are available for review in the architecture libraries of the participating schools. Our guest jurors this year: Leanna Gatlin, Senior Associate, Ziegler Cooper Architects; W. Mark Gunderson, AIA; Principal of W. Mark Gunderson, Architect, Fort Worth; John Hawkins, AIA, Partner, Porter Hedges LLP; Sheryl Kolasinski, Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer, Menil Collection; Susanne Theis, Programming Director, Discovery Green Conservancy. The total application must include: Completed application A written proposal for the project (one to three pages), describing goals, expected outcomes, work plan, and schedule for the project, and a discussion of its significance. Applicants also should describe past work in the area of the proposed research Resume for each participant Students will need a faculty advisor and a letter of support A project budget (equipment such as computers, digital cameras, etc. may not be included) Mail application and supporting materials to: Rice University
 Rice Design Alliance MS-51 P.O. Box 1892
 Houston, Texas 77251-1892 The deadline for applications is April 6, 2015. Awards will be announced on May 4, 2015.

In software design, a plug-in adds a specific feature to enhance or expand an existing application. The Rice School of Architecture/Rice Design Alliance Spring 2015 Lecture Series presents four speakers who strategically install a different cultural plug-in — material, social, economic, tectonic — to refresh our attitudes about architecture’s capabilities. Curated by RSA Visiting Wortham Lecturer Tei Carpenter, Plug-Ins will feature the following four lecturers: January 21 Markus Bader, Co-Founder, raumlabor Reception sponsored by D.E. Harvey Builders January 28 James Casebere, Artist Reception sponsored by Berger Iron Works, LLC; Chamberlin Roofing & Waterproofing; and Marek Companies February 11 Hilary Sample, Co-Founder, MOS Architects Reception courtesy RDA February 25 Keller Easterling, Professor, Yale School of Architecture Reception sponsored by Gensler You can purchase series tickets here. All lectures are held at 7 p.m. in the Brown Auditorium at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, at 1001 Bissonnet Street. A wine reception, sponsored by local architecture, design, and engineering firms, will precede each lecture at 6 p.m. Tickets are available for purchase online or by mail. Series Tickets: $20 – RDA, MFA,H members $15 – Senior citizens 65 years and older $10 – Students with ID $35 – Others Single Tickets (as available, sold 30 minutes before the lecture) $7 – RDA, MFA,H members Senior citizens 65 years older Students with ID $15 – Others These lectures are made possible by Pickard Chilton, Brochsteins, Cardno Haynes Whaley, D.E. Harvey Builders, Hines, Hines Southwest Region, Kendall/Heaton Associates, Planning Design Research Corporation, Satterfield & Pontikes Construction Inc., Walter P Moore, The Woodlands Development Company/The Howard Hughes Corporation, and the Corporate Members of the Rice Design Alliance. Sponsor support comes from Balfour Beatty Construction, Bury, HOK, McCarthy, TheOFIS Companies, Telios, Trammell Crow Company, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Our fall lecture series starts tomorrow night. There'll be a mix of architects, historians, artists, photographers; their creative work is speculative and tries to imagine what our cities and buildings will look like in the next 10, 15, 20 years. This lecture series will have a different format from others. On Wednesday, October 1, Jean-Louis Cohen, an architectural historian and critic, will introduce the series and explore its themes. The next two weeks will feature a curated discussion between two artists. On Wednesday, October 8, Belgian photographer Filip Dujardin will be in dialogue with Oscar-nominated production designer K.K. Barrett (best known for his work with director Spike Jonze on such films as Her and Being John Malkovich). Finally, on Wednesday, October 15, British architect and curator Liam Young and Polish visual artist Agnieszka Kurant will continue the discussion. All lectures are held at 7 p.m. in the Brown Auditorium at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, at 1001 Bissonnet Street. A wine reception, sponsored by local architecture, design, and engineering firms, will precede each lecture at 6 p.m. You can purchase tickets for the series here. Or you can purchase single tickets the night of. They're $15 for the general public and $7 for RDA/MFAH members, students with ID, and seniors.

RDA's annual civic forum will address walkabilty in Houston. “WALK HOUSTON” will be a two-part forum with short presentations and moderated discussions among panelists followed by a question-and-answer session with audience members. The forums will take place at 6:30 p.m. on consecutive Wednesdays, August 20 and 27, at the Brown Auditorium at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Admission is free and open to the public. The panelists come from an array of governmental, commercial, academic, and nonprofit organizations: WHY WALK Wednesday, August 20 Clark Martinson, General Manager of the Energy Corridor District Bakeyah Nelson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Exercise and Health Sciences, Department of Clinical Health and Applied Sciences, UH-Clear Lake Susan Rogers, Assistant Professor and Director, Community Design Resource Center, Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at the University of Houston HOW TO WALK Wednesday, August 27 Kinder Baumgardner, President, SWA Group Raj Mankad, Editor of Cite: The Architecture + Design Review of Houston, Rice Design Alliance Carra Moroni, Program Manager, Community Transformation Initiative, Houston Department of Health and Human Services Rob Tullis, Vice President, Director of Design, GID Urban Development Group You can see more here: http://ricedesignalliance.org/2014/2014-civic-forum-addresses-walkability-in-houston/

I read recently on Swamplot that Rice actually owns the land in Rice Village. Is this true? I know that Rice owns other buildings around Houston (including Midtown's Sears), but does Rice's contiguous land go much west of Greenbriar?

Cool new James Turrell art installation at Rice University, named "Skyspace"

I attached a small video camera to my bike and recorded my ride around the Rice campus yesterday. Cool huh? (anybody know how to embed the YouTube video?)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6083117.html "Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine have begun holding serious discussions that could lead to a merger of the state's top private university and one of the country's best medical schools. A merger would bring Rice the reputational enhancement it has long desired and Baylor the security of a university affiliation, which is often necessary to keep medical schools afloat financially. Baylor is one of only nine stand-alone medical schools in the United States."

I know there are a lot of urban explorers here on HAIF. Has anyone been to the tunnels beneath Rice University? There's 2.6 miles of tunnels down there. And the Facilities department even has tours open to the public! http://facilities.rice.edu/Department.aspx?id=2248