Houston’s Rice University has opened the largest research facility on its core campus: the $152 million Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science.
Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the 251,400-sf, five-story O’Connor Building provides students and researchers with state-of-the-art laboratories, classrooms, offices, and a cafe, in addition to multiple gathering spaces. On the top level, a multipurpose event space with an outdoor terrace offers views of the campus and the Houston skyline.
A five-story central atrium serves as an activity hub, connecting to seminar rooms, break areas, and informal gathering spaces. On the atrium’s ground level, a transparent glass façade displays this activity to the larger campus. At the building’s main entrance, brick walls and a fritted glass wall frame a cantilevered sculptural stair.
Passive and Active Design Strategies for Research Facilities
SOM’s design intends to foster collaboration in four research areas: advanced materials, quantum science and computing, urban research and innovation, and the energy transition. Promoting this interaction, the stair tower and the central hub connect a series of stepped double-height collaboration areas on different levels. Conference rooms and break areas offer more opportunities for informal learning and connection.
In line with the historic campus’s aesthetics, the O’Connor Building’s façade features brick and punched windows with angled brick pilasters and fins. Along the western edge, a covered arcade is shaded by a brick and stone veil. The arcade veil comprises alternating bands of brick and cast-stone modules, with rotated bricks in between, so light can enter between the gaps.
Both passive and active design strategies include maximizing daylight, strategic placement of the angled pilasters and vertical fins, and the use of skylights to soften the strong Texas sun. As a result of the passive design strategies, as well as an energy-efficient HVAC and lighting system, the laboratories use 50% less energy than a comparable research space.
On the Building Team:
Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Structural engineer: IMEG Corp.
Local architect, programmer, laboratory planner: Scientia Architects
Lab consultant: Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.
Civil engineering: Walter P Moore
Mechanical, electrical, plumbing: Wylie
Landscape: OJB Landscape Architecture
Contractor: Anslow-Bryant Construction
Related Stories
| Sep 14, 2022
Indian tribe’s new educational campus supports culturally appropriate education
The Kenaitze Indian Tribe recently opened the Kahtnuht’ana Duhdeldiht Campus (Kenai River People’s Learning Place), a new education center in Kenai, Alaska.
University Buildings | Sep 9, 2022
Alan Schlossberg, AIA, LEED AP, joins DesignGroup’s Pittsburgh studio as Regional Practice Leader
Alan Schlossberg, AIA, LEED AP, has joined DesignGroup as a principal of the firm and regional practice leader.
| Sep 2, 2022
New UMass Medical School building enables expanded medical class sizes, research labs
A new nine-story, 350,000 sf biomedical research and education facility under construction at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in Worcester, Mass., will accommodate larger class sizes and extensive lab space.
| Sep 1, 2022
The University of Iowa opens the new Stanley Museum of Art, a public museum for both discovering and teaching art
The University of Iowa recently completed its new Stanley Museum of Art, a public teaching museum designed by BNIM.
University Buildings | Aug 25, 2022
Higher education, striving for ‘normal’ again, puts student needs at the center of project planning
Sustainability and design flexibility are what higher education clients are seeking consistently, according to the dozen AEC Giants contacted for this article. “University campuses across North America are commissioning new construction projects designed to make existing buildings and energy systems more sustainable, and are building new flexible learning space that bridge the gap between remote and in-person learning,” say Patrick McCafferty, Arup’s Education Business Leader–Americas East region, and Matt Humphries, Education Business Leader in Canada region.
Giants 400 | Aug 22, 2022
Top 90 University Contractors and Construction Management Firms for 2022
Turner Construction, Whiting-Turner Contracting, PCL Construction Enterprises, and DPR Construction lead the ranking of the nation's largest university sector contractors and construction management (CM) firms, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Aug 22, 2022
Top 85 University Engineering + EA Firms for 2022
AECOM, Jacobs, Salas O'Brien, and IMEG head the ranking of the nation's largest university sector engineering and engineering/architecture (EA) firms, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Aug 22, 2022
Top 150 University Architecture + AE Firms for 2022
Gensler, CannonDesign, SmithGroup, and Perkins and Will top the ranking of the nation's largest university sector architecture and architecture/engineering (AE) firms, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Aug 22, 2022
Top 90 Construction Management Firms for 2022
CBRE, Alfa Tech, Jacobs, and Hill International head the rankings of the nation's largest construction management (as agent) and program/project management firms for nonresidential and multifamily buildings work, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Aug 22, 2022
Top 200 Contractors for 2022
Turner Construction, STO Building Group, Whiting-Turner, and DPR Construction top the ranking of the nation's largest general contractors, CM at risk firms, and design-builders for nonresidential buildings and multifamily buildings work, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.
