Today Rice University in Houston announced that it would be breaking ground next month on a new social sciences building designed by Rogers Partners. The Patricia Lipoma Kraft ’87 and Jonathan A. Kraft Hall for Social Sciences will take the place of a former intramural field, according to a press release, and will include classrooms, conference rooms, student lounges, and a 300-person multipurpose room. The 73,000-square-foot building will also accommodate the Texas Policy Lab, the dean's office, and sociology lab space.
"The building will create more opportunities for collaboration, broaden our research visibility and impact and facilitate outreach to and partnership with community leaders," said Antonio Merlo, the dean of the School of Social Sciences, in the press release.
Rogers Partners, which has offices in New York City and Houston, designed the $38 million building around an interior courtyard. Punctured by windows on the south and west sides, the façade will feature St. Joe brick to match the university's preceding architecture, with cast stone and marble detailing. The building is designed to LEED Silver standards.
"The new Kraft Hall for Social Sciences will truly be a hinge between the traditional Academic Quad and the future South Axis," said founding principal Rob Rogers, FAIA, in the press release. "The architecture accentuates the linkage across the campus and extends the graceful tradition of Rice buildings into a new generation of materials and spaces, all focused on learning, gathering and collaborating."
Following the start of construction next month, the building is slated to finish by November 2019 and open to students by the spring semester of 2020.
Visit ARCHITECT's Project Gallery for more information about Patricia Lipoma Kraft ’87 and Jonathan A. Kraft Hall for Social Sciences.
