As visitors explore the newly redesigned Academic Quadrangle at Rice University, they will encounter three distinct zones, each crafted to enhance its unique value and purpose: ceremony, commons and community.
In February 2023, the board of trustees selected the acclaimed landscape architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz to reimagine the quad. Senior Principal Thomas Woltz and his team made numerous trips to Houston, working closely with George Ristow, the university architect, and Matt Hester, the senior project manager, who were on-site daily to help realize the new vision.
As Woltz guides us through the quad, it becomes clear that while the redesign is visually striking, its significance goes far beyond mere aesthetics. “I don’t see the landscape as an act of decoration,” he noted. “I see it as a physical manifestation of values.”