The Way I See It: Aggressive growth and sustainable values are a happy, cost-effective and thoughtful pairing at Rice

The Way I See It: Aggressive growth and sustainable values are a happy, cost-effective and thoughtful pairing at Rice   

BY BARBARA WHITE BRYSON AND RICHARD JOHNSON
Special to the Rice News

Rice University, known as a bucolic and lovely campus community shaded by more than 4,000 trees, is suddenly growing at a pace commensurate with Houston itself. The collegiate air is rent with bulldozer engines and back-up signals. Construction fences have invaded the campus as insidiously as King Ranch bluestem grass across Texas. Rice is expanding its 3.7 million square feet of built space by almost one million square feet by the end of 2009, quickly and cost-effectively, in concert with the university’s Vision for the Second Century.  Interestingly enough, however, in spite of this singular focus, the explosive growth is also accompanied by a commitment to construct all new buildings to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards. 

BARBARA WHITE BRYSON	RICHARD JOHNSON

But why should Rice take on an additional challenge at this critical moment of growth? After all, everyone knows that LEED buildings cost more, don’t they? At the levels of LEED-Certified and LEED-Silver, we’re commonly told to expect about a 1