Rice’s new high-tech utility plant casts ‘green’ shadow

Rice’s new high-tech utility plant casts ‘green’ shadow
Innovative design preserves Medical Center’s last native biosphere

BY JADE BOYD
Rice News staff

Rice University will celebrate its centennial in 2012, and construction crews this month are set to begin work on one of the cornerstones of the university’s ambitious expansion plan for its second century — a new physical plant that will simultaneously open Rice’s undeveloped southwest campus to future construction while preserving the only remaining example of a native biosphere in the Texas Medical Center.

Located on Main Street, about a quarter mile north of University Boulevard, Rice’s $54.5 million South Utility Plant is slated to begin operations next summer.

South Utility Plant

“Construction of new facilities is one the most tangible signs of progress on any university campus, and in many ways Rice’s South Utility Plant embodies the principles that underlie Rice’s Vision for the Second Century,” said Barbara White Bryson, associate vice president for administration. “Most of the growth on our campus during the coming century will come along the north-south axis, a move that reflects Rice’s increasingly close relationship with sister institutions in the Texas Medical Center.”

The South Utility Plant will set the stage for that growth, and its innovative design will enhance education and research at Rice while preserving one of Houston’s historic natural areas, Bryson said.

Designed by renowned New Mexico-based architect Antoine Predock, the south plant design calls for: