Rice Campus

The Rice campus has approximately 285 acres of level ground planted with more than 4,000 trees. The 2.9-mile campus perimeter is enclosed by a hedge of wax leaf ligustrum and a double row of live oak trees, and no public roads cross the campus. 

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Rice Architecture

The university campus has evolved and expanded since the first building – Lovett Hall – was constructed in 1912, and the buildings reflect the changes and trends of the past century of American architecture. 

The oldest buildings were inspired by the medieval architecture of Southern Europe but were adapted for the hot, humid Texas coastal plain. Red clay tile roofs, rose-hued brick, cloistered passageways and elaborate stonework characterize these buildings, designed by the Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram. In addition to providing the general plan of the campus in 1910, the firm of Cram, Goodie and Ferguson designed the following buildings:   

These buildings -- plus the Chemistry Building (1925), the Robert and Agnes Cohen House (1927) and the Track and Soccer Field grandstand -- constitute the surviving construction built before the end of World War II in 1945. Between 1946 and 1950, the university added M.D. Anderson Hall, the Abercrombie Engineering Laboratory, Fondren Library, a president's house, the Wiess Hall dormitory, Rice Stadium, and the Rice Gymnasium and Autry Court, now part of Tudor Fieldhouse. All of the buildings (except the stadium and gymnasium) were designed by the Houston architectural firm Staub and Rather.  

During the 1950s, modern buildings began to appear: the M.D. Anderson Biological Laboratories, Keith-Wiess Geological Laboratories, Space Science and Technology Building, Hamman Hall (designed by Rice alumni George ’42 and Abel Pierce ’30), and Mary Gibbs Jones College. The design of this era’s campus buildings thoughtfully preserved the spatial principles and architectural precedents established by Cram while casting them in a thoroughly modernist architectural vocabulary.  

In 1957, university trustees implemented President Lovett's vision of a system of residential colleges. They constructed extensive additions to the existing residential buildings and established Baker, Will Rice, Hanszen, Wiess and Jones colleges. In the 1960s, additional buildings were constructed to house the newly formed Brown, Lovett and Sid Richardson colleges. Between 1979 and 1994, under the leadership of university trustee Josephine E. Abercrombie, chair of the Buildings and Grounds Committee, the university renewed its historical commitment to architectural patronage by retaining architects of national and international standing in the design of a succession of buildings: 

The committee also retained Cesar Pelli in 1983 to prepare a new master plan for growth, which served to recommend future construction consistent with Cram's general plan. Rice continued this commitment through the turn of the century with the completion of the following buildings: 

In 2005, the Pelli plan was supplemented by the development of a 50-year master plan for growth prepared by Michael Graves and Associates. In addition to proposing the use of several important "infill" sites, the Graves plan also proposes the future development of the southwest area of the campus along an axis originating at the intersection of University and Main and extending northward to the West Quadrangle. 

As the university approaches the 100th anniversary of its opening, it has completed an unprecedented program of new construction. Since 2005, more than one million square feet have been added to the campus including: