Rice University construction records

Planning for the construction of what has become Rice University began in 1909 when President Edgar Odell Lovett met with the architectural firm of Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson of New York and Boston to develop a general architetural plan. The original campus master plan of Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Goodhue served as the guiding concept for the layout and architecture for nearly 100 years. Following the initial construction of buildings in 1910 to 1912, there were periods in the mid-1960s and mid-1980s when the university primarily took on one major project at a time. In 1996 Duncan Hall for computational engineering was constructed, and in 1997, the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy and the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (Dell Butcher Hall). By 2002 the trustees and administration recognized that expansion of activities warranted additional campus planning and hired award-winning architect Michael Graves to develop an amended master plan. The need for new construction had been recognized previously. In 1997 the trustees approved a $500 million fund-raising campaign called "Rice: The Next Century." About four-fifths of the funds were earmarked for construction. Thus, by 2000, eight major construction projects with an estimated cost of $290 million had either broken ground or were in planning stages. These included the building that became the Jones Graduate School of Management and an underground parking garage. Also included were Martel College, a new Wiess College, and additions to Jones, Brown and Hanszen (all residential colleges). A new humanities building was completed in the summer of 2000, and in the spring, a new baseball stadium, Reckling Field. Renovations of Rayzor Hall, Sewall Hall, and Keck Hall (the original chemistry building) also took place. Between 2000 and 2011 construction included Duncan and McMurtry Colleges (residential), the Barbara Gibbs Wellness and Recreation Center, the Biosciences Research Collaborative, the Brochstein Pavilion, Brockman Hall (physics), and renovations of Will Rice and Baker Colleges and the gymnasium. In 2007 construction began on a new physical plant, the South Utility Plant.