With last week’s unveiling of Rice University’s redesigned Academic Quadrangle came the introduction of a few new residents – the 42 species of plants that are breathing new life into the biodiversity at this beloved campus hub.
What was once a scorching four acres of grass with no place to sit has now transformed into a lush, vibrant landscape, teeming with trees, blooming flowers and refreshed sod. The internationally acclaimed landscape architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz (NBW) was chosen to work with Rice on this yearslong project.
“I believe that the land holds our human story and the energy associated with those stories,” said Thomas Woltz, senior principal at NBW. “Place matters. This is what the students and faculty wished to address in calling for the reimagining of the Rice quadrangle. What we have created here is a variety of spaces that welcome student life and encourage interaction with community, faculty and alumni.”
NBW worked with George Ristow, university architect and assistant vice president for campus planning and design, along with a planning team to incorporate the university’s needs and desires into the firm’s suggestions.
“Rice selected NBW in part because of their outstanding work, some of which can be seen locally at Memorial Park, the Rothko Chapel and in the Ismaili Center project taking shape near Buffalo Bayou,” Ristow said. “Furthermore, their unwavering efforts to align the design with input from across the Rice community signified a shared value system and commitment to serve as Rice’s thought partners in the space’s evolution.”
NBW used feedback gathered from faculty, staff, students and alumni for several months to inform a blueprint for the campus’ new architectural centerpiece. The iconic academic quad now brims with an enhanced attention to nature’s beauty and symbiotic relationship to Rice Owls.
Just inside the Sallyport, flora and lines of bald cypress trees dot the area flanked by Sewall, Lovett and Herzstein Halls.
“We've transformed [what was formerly] the grass in front of the building into a vibrant garden of flowering plants, most of which are native to Texas, and all of which support pollinators and bring a dramatic increase of biodiversity to the quad,” Woltz said.
Butterflies, bees, ants and myriad other arthropods may be found crawling, marching or fluttering from one plant to the next.
Moving along the quad, deciduous trees populate a middle section and will provide aesthetically pleasing views and a respite from the sun alongside long, curving benches that invite engagement from all members of the community. On the opposite end of the quad, a serene community-focused area is surrounded by loblolly pines that transform the student space into an outdoor living room, replete with natural cover.
The emphasis on native and Texas-friendly plants was a crucial one as plans took shape during the final stages of construction.
“When it comes to landscaping, thinking about native species is probably the most important topic,” said Cassidy Johnson, assistant teaching professor of biosciences. “The major reason that using indigenous plant species is important for landscaping projects is that they fully support the native wildlife that exists in our area. All of those native plants coevolved with the pollinators, and quite a few of those insect species are then recruited to pollinate our foods. A lot of our crops continue to be insect pollinated, so having a good, robust population of those insects is vital for agriculture.”
Additionally, native plants are accustomed to Texas heat, so they remain less thirsty while simultaneously reinforcing draining patterns.
“The tree species that have been planted have a very significant impact with drainage,” Johnson said. “Not only does the root system break up the soil where the soil itself will absorb more water, the roots also trap more water.”
Now complete with the new planting, the landscape has morphed from a lawn monoculture into a landscape that now features a wide variety of shade trees, perennials and shrubs. In total, more than 24,000 new plants have been introduced to the quad, all of them either native or adapted to the climate of Houston. Native Texas wildflowers, such as purple coneflower, mealy blue sage and Brazos penstemon, bloom in hues of blue and purple, echoing school colors.
More than 90 trees were added, and two large mature oaks at the quad’s west end were preserved and used to determine the landscape’s ecology. The new, arcing path across the quad is lined with Monterrey oaks that provide an awning along the primary circulation route. As the trees continue to mature, the space beneath them will become a contiguous body of shade.
The opening of the academic quad, with all of its foliage, elevates the splendor of the Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum, a teaching and research resource at Rice. The Lowrey Arboretum includes a collection of trees and woody plants dispersed throughout the nearly 300-acre campus that represent native and introduced plant species which are suitable to the wet prairie climate of the Houston area. As an outdoor classroom spanning the full campus, the arboretum supports environmentally-focused programs in biology, engineering, architecture and literature.
Dedicated on March 18, 1999, the Lowrey Arboretum honors the distinguished horticulturist whose life and work were dedicated to spreading knowledge and cultivating appreciation for the trees and plants of the American Gulf Coast and northern Mexico. Two of the plants growing in the quad were brought to Texas from Mexico by Lowrey: the Monterrey Oak (Quercus polymorpha) and the Mexican Scullcap (Scutellaria suffrutescens).
“Our entire campus is an arboretum, and we're very unique in that our peer institutions have arboretums, but their entire campus is not the arboretum,” Johnson said. “This revision to the quad is going to connect all of those elements together. People know there is an arboretum on Rice's campus, and they generally are thinking about the canopy of the inner loop. This quad is going to bring all of that together in the heart of campus as well. I think the refined quad helps connect all the dots.”
For more information about the new academic quad, visit rice.edu/quad.