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
| Nov 3, 2014
An ancient former post office in Portland, Ore., provides an even older art college with a new home
About seven years ago, The Pacific Northwest College of Art, the oldest art college in Portland, was evaluating its master plan with an eye towards expanding and upgrading its campus facilities. A board member brought to the attention of the college a nearby 134,000-sf building that had once served as the city’s original post office.
| Oct 16, 2014
Perkins+Will white paper examines alternatives to flame retardant building materials
The white paper includes a list of 193 flame retardants, including 29 discovered in building and household products, 50 found in the indoor environment, and 33 in human blood, milk, and tissues.
| Oct 15, 2014
Harvard launches ‘design-centric’ center for green buildings and cities
The impetus behind Harvard's Center for Green Buildings and Cities is what the design school’s dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, describes as a “rapidly urbanizing global economy,” in which cities are building new structures “on a massive scale.”
| Oct 14, 2014
Proven 6-step approach to treating historic windows
This course provides step-by-step prescriptive advice to architects, engineers, and contractors on when it makes sense to repair or rehabilitate existing windows, and when they should advise their building owner clients to consider replacement.
| Oct 12, 2014
AIA 2030 commitment: Five years on, are we any closer to net-zero?
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the American Institute of Architects’ effort to have architecture firms voluntarily pledge net-zero energy design for all their buildings by 2030.
| Sep 24, 2014
Architecture billings see continued strength, led by institutional sector
On the heels of recording its strongest pace of growth since 2007, there continues to be an increasing level of demand for design services signaled in the latest Architecture Billings Index.
| Sep 22, 2014
4 keys to effective post-occupancy evaluations
Perkins+Will's Janice Barnes covers the four steps that designers should take to create POEs that provide design direction and measure design effectiveness.
| Sep 22, 2014
Sound selections: 12 great choices for ceilings and acoustical walls
From metal mesh panels to concealed-suspension ceilings, here's our roundup of the latest acoustical ceiling and wall products.
| Sep 17, 2014
New hub on campus: Where learning is headed and what it means for the college campus
It seems that the most recent buildings to pop up on college campuses are trying to do more than just support academics. They are acting as hubs for all sorts of on-campus activities, writes Gensler's David Broz.
| Sep 15, 2014
Ranked: Top international AEC firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Parsons Brinckerhoff, Gensler, and Jacobs top BD+C's rankings of U.S.-based design and construction firms with the most revenue from international projects, as reported in the 2014 Giants 300 Report.
