Rice University Campus Developments

[monarch]

^^^ @hindesky atta boy!

[mkultra25]

4 hours ago, hindesky said:

Came across these 2 fenced off areas near the intersection of Alumni Dr and Collage Way. This western one is by the south servery and the smaller by Hansen College. Sign says "Rice Tent Structures", @monarch is going to love this 

 

Those sites are where Old Wiess College and the previous Wiess masters' house used to sit. Directly across College Way was the Wiess parking lot, which went away in 1984 when Herring Hall was built on that site.    

[Houston19514]

The newspaper has the story (of course it's New York's newspaper, not Houston's):

 

From the New York Times:

 

Rice University, in Houston, is building nine big new classrooms this summer, all of them outdoors.

Five are open-sided circus tents that the university is buying, and another four are semi-permanent structures that workers are building in an open field near dorms,

Edited July 13, 2020 by Houston19514

[hindesky]

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/Rice-University-is-building-nine-outdoor-15407618.php

 

Rice University plans to take some fall courses outdoors amid the COVID-19 pandemic and will build nine structures on campus to help maintain social distancing guidelines.

Kevin Kirby, Rice’s vice president for administration and chair of its Crisis Management Advisory Committee, said in a release that as the college maps out the maximum number of people for every space on campus, it plans to construct nine outdoor spaces to use for in-person instruction, lectures and activities.

Rice has purchased four temporary 50 by 90-foot structures that will hold 50 students and an instructor in an outdoor space. The structures, to be hosted on the open field next to university’s Hanzen College, will have light, cooling, heat and ventilation, and will have audiovisual capabilities, he wrote. Kirby noted that they are also designed to withstand hurricane winds.

 

The spaces, which will be available before classes begin this fall, will be used for instruction throughout the day, academic lectures in the late afternoon, and for student meeting and study spaces in the evening.

Additionally, Rice will host five 40 by 60-foot open-sided tents adjacent to its academic buildings and will purchase portable camping-style chairs for students to use outdoors. Kirby said Rice administration will also ask students who have portable chairs to bring them to campus. How the tents will be used has yet to be determined, Kirby said.

None of the structures have been built yet.

brittany.britto@chron.com

[Houston19514]

9 minutes ago, hindesky said:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/Rice-University-is-building-nine-outdoor-15407618.php

 

Rice University plans to take some fall courses outdoors amid the COVID-19 pandemic and will build nine structures on campus to help maintain social distancing guidelines.

Kevin Kirby, Rice’s vice president for administration and chair of its Crisis Management Advisory Committee, said in a release that as the college maps out the maximum number of people for every space on campus, it plans to construct nine outdoor spaces to use for in-person instruction, lectures and activities.

Rice has purchased four temporary 50 by 90-foot structures that will hold 50 students and an instructor in an outdoor space. The structures, to be hosted on the open field next to university’s Hanzen College, will have light, cooling, heat and ventilation, and will have audiovisual capabilities, he wrote. Kirby noted that they are also designed to withstand hurricane winds.

 

The spaces, which will be available before classes begin this fall, will be used for instruction throughout the day, academic lectures in the late afternoon, and for student meeting and study spaces in the evening.

Additionally, Rice will host five 40 by 60-foot open-sided tents adjacent to its academic buildings and will purchase portable camping-style chairs for students to use outdoors. Kirby said Rice administration will also ask students who have portable chairs to bring them to campus. How the tents will be used has yet to be determined, Kirby said.

None of the structures have been built yet.

brittany.britto@chron.com

 

Cool.  Someone at the Chronicle must have a subscription to The New York Times.  😉

[hindesky]

1 minute ago, Houston19514 said:

 

Cool.  Someone at the Chronicle must have a subscription to The New York Times.  😉

I'd like to believe they get their info here

[Houston19514]

6 minutes ago, hindesky said:

I'd like to believe they get their info here

 

🙂  They could do worse (and often do).

[tangledwoods]

Quote

Kirby said Rice administration will also ask students who have portable chairs to bring them to campus. How the tents will be used has yet to be determined, Kirby said.

 

Let me get this straight, you pay a crap ton of money for your tuition and the school turns around and ask you to bring your own chair???  

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/education/campus-chronicles/article/college-campus-fall-covid-uneasy-dangerous-staff-15464562.php#photo-19776442

 

 

[cityliving]

When I saw them I thought they were building greenhouses for plants.🌱

[Highrise Tower]

Covid Open Tents.

https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/TABS/Search/Project/TABS2020021866

 

[hindesky]

All the fencing is down around the Music Hall.

[zaphod]

Those "tents" appear to be more like a modern day version of a quonset hut.

[hindesky]

[monarch]

^^^ my gosh...

[Texasota]

Boring

Bland

Banal

[tangledwoods]

what is the seating capacity on the theater? by those photos, it seems like there are very few seats...  I wander what this works out to $/seat.

[rechlin]

The opera hall looks really nice, even better than I expected.  Despite what the naysayers said, they did a great job with this and it fits in perfectly with the architecture of the rest of the campus.  Of course, it will look even better once the trees grow up in a few decades.

 

For those not familiar with the music school, only the first two photos in @hindesky's last post are from the new opera hall.  The remainder show older parts of the music school, where the third is the existing Stude Concert Hall (and its lobby after that) and the last is the existing, much smaller, Duncan Recital Hall.

[cityliving]

15 hours ago, hindesky said:

 

Beautiful building ❤️

[ArtNsf]

15 hours ago, hindesky said:

 

BEAUTIFUL design and work. I can't wait until this pandemic nightmare eases up enough in a year or two to start having incredible concerts and performances at this awesome venue !

 

 

[Texasota]

I continue to say nay to this design. It's well-proportioned and blandly handsome, but I really expect more from Rice. They have the money to do something genuinely great that pushes architecture forward. This is just *fine.*

[Avossos]

11 minutes ago, Texasota said:

I continue to say nay to this design. It's well-proportioned and blandly handsome, but I really expect more from Rice. They have the money to do something genuinely great that pushes architecture forward. This is just *fine.*

 

Hey - I noticed your comment earlier. I see you that you want to re-iterate your dislike for this. While I value your input on these things, I feel like I should add a rebuttal. 

 

While this architecture isn't "new" or "modern" or even "cutting edge", it is elegant and classic. While you probably don't agree, I would love to see more architecture in the classic genre... I am of the mindset that celebrates a diverse  application of many styles. I love seeing complex masonry. I love seeing stone, tile, brick, and ornate windows constructed together, especially in 2020.

 

I think Rice really spent some money on this building. I think it is an example of a building that will age well and be timeless. I think this building is genuinely great, and was always intended to match the other historic buildings on campus. It was never intended to read as 'new' or 'modern'.

 

anyway - No offense! difference of opinion is OK. I can appreciate all points of view! I might be in the minority on this, but I am thrilled about this one   

Edited August 17, 2020 by Avossos

[Texasota]

I don't like this thing *because* I like historic buildings. What I don't like is brand new buildings trying to ape historic styles. I do think this building does a good job with its proportions, which is something most new attempts at "elegant and classic" styles get wrong. But, compared to the buildings this is trying to look like, the details and finishes look cheap. Because they are! We don't hand paint plaster details anymore! We don't really do *anything* with plaster anymore! They slightly abstracted and simplified a lot of the forms, but (to me) the result is an awkward comprise between modern forms and historic decoration.

 

What's with the weirdly abstracted quasi-Doric columns? Why are the color choices so bland? Why not put effort into elements people will directly interact with, like the handrails? 

 

We don't build buildings the same way we used to. We don't use the same building materials or techniques. We don't even always have the same goals for the performance of the building. This is a modern building play-acting as historic, and I just think it would work better if it acknowledged that. Keep the proportions (which generally work) but acknowledge that you're using modern materials and lean into their advantages, rather than forcing them to ape plaster, hand-milled old-growth lumber, and other traditional materials.

 

[J.A.]

I can set aside the validity of historicist architecture on modern buildings if it looks right. I'm not so sure that the proportions of the overall massing are working for the Music Hall, though. I've always thought that the big blocky mass plopped on top looked a little truncated... like they forgot to design a pitched roof for it. Without that big volume dropped on top, the proportions of the rest of the building (windows, arches etc.) seem pleasant enough if not really a match for an actual historic building.

 

That interior, though... It's veering into Disney World or maybe even Tillman Fertitta territory in that it's getting a little cartoony. Has anyone been to 'Be Our Guest' restaurant in the Magic Kingdom? (Don't eat there; the food is terrible!) It reminds me of that somehow (the entry hall, and the main theater looking back towards the seating in particular)...

Edited August 17, 2020 by J.A.

[tangledwoods]

I think the criticism by Texasota is certainly valid for this pastiche building. Compare this Opera Hall to Dickies Arena.  The rice project looks like an imitation, it looks like it is trying to be something older than it is.  Compare that to what David Schwarz did at Dickies arena and you can tell the difference between imitation and authenticity.

 

https://www.dmsas.com/project/dickies-arena/

 

The quality of construction and the high level of design is something to behold.  I am frequently the person doing the cost cutting on these major projects and know a few of the architects from Dickies.  Every place that I would cut cost, they went the other direction.  

 

Checkout this group of photos from Beaubois (the millwork contractor):

http://www.beaubois.com/projects/dickies-arena/

 

 

[ArtNsf]

Seems to me that there once again, are way too many purists who just can't resist their lower impulses and must criticize a valiant attempt to recreate the past while adding in modern comforts and sensitivities.  And, because the architect or developer or whomever was 100% successful at satisfying both arguments, but only part of each, then they are now the enemy of design.

 

Well, as I said to a friend of mine that went to Rice and also loves the new buildings AND their designs with homage to the past.  It's gorgeous and it takes a pretty small minded individual not to admit that in this context and in this forum.  Sorry, but the truth speaks louder than just sitting back and always letting these little petty posters get away with unfounded criticism time and time again, when THEY aren't the ones putting up the 10's of millions of dollars to improve something so well and make an ugly situation or blank slate a bit more and more beautiful that  before.

 

So, here's to the latest beautiful masterpiece of Rice University architecture and I hope others will come to realize in the years to come.  Well done.

[Texasota]

Oh no! Somebody doesn't like something you like! They must be small-minded and petty! 

 

My criticisms are considered and specific. You don't have to agree with them, but accusing me of being "small-minded and petty" is ridiculous. 

 

Again, this is an architecture forum. Criticism is part of the point!

[hindesky]

The tower crane at the Sid Richardson dorms is coming down. Brick going up on parts of it. Temp class rooms.

[monarch]

Houston philanthropist Fayez Sarofim leads funding for new Rice arts facility

A new arts facility at Rice University has just received a major boost, thanks to one of Houston’s most generous philanthropists. Local businessman and benefactor, Fayez Sarofim, has made a lead gift to create a 50,000-square-foot facility located next door to the Moody Center for the Arts.

The $25 million building will be named in honor of Sarofim and will seek to amplify the arts on campus and in the community. Financing will come from a combination of university funds and philanthropic donations, including the lead gift from Sarofim, according to a press release.

“Fayez Sarofim has once more made a tremendous difference for the arts in Houston, and we are incredibly indebted and proud to be able to recognize his support with a building named in his honor,” Rice University president, David Leebron, said in a statement.

The building, once completed, will cement the southwest corner of campus as an arts district that will serve as a resource for Rice students and faculty, as well as the larger Houston community. Nearby facilities include the Moody Center for the Arts, the Shepherd School of Music’s Alice Pratt Brown Hall, and the newly built Brockman Music and Performing Arts Center.

The facility will also support increasing enrollment in the Visual and Dramatic Arts (VADA) department and provide new opportunities for collaboration across disciplines, per a release. VADA serves 900 students a year, roughly a quarter of the school’s undergraduate population. Demand for more classes through VADA continues to grow in a variety of majors, including engineering, computer science, and architecture, according to the school.