Construction projects updated

By Dale Swartz     4/10/08 7:00pm

As the academic year draws to a close, some familiar construction fences are coming down, with new ones soon to appear in other parts of campus. The Brochstein Pavilion will be completed on Thursday, April 24, south plant construction will end July 31 and construction on a new Recreation Center will begin in earnest next week. Meanwhile, the Collaborative Research Center celebrated the completion of its tenth story last month.

Recreation Center

Construction of the Rec Center is slated to begin after April 15, with an estimated completion date in August 2009. The new building will be located at the current site of intramural field 4 on the northern side of the Inner Loop, across the street from the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management.

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Facilities, Engineering and Planning Project Manager Joe Buchanan said the site work has already begun, and crews have moved six large trees and have almost reached a negotiation with the contractor to begin construction. In the next week, with building permits in hand, construction fences will go up and foundation work will begin.

Buchanan said the first order of business will be to construct a service road for construction traffic, which will extend around the north and west sides of the site. Crew vehicles will enter from Entrance 20 and exit via the Inner Loop. He said he does not anticipate any road closures due to the construction.

The completed complex will be a considerable improvement over current facilities at Autry Court, Buchanan said. Designed primarily of brick and glass in a similar style to nearby buildings, it will house indoor and outdoor basketball courts, four racquetball courts, two squash courts and a weight and cardio room. It will also house an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a smaller 2,500 square foot pool intended for recreational use. A smaller wing in the building will house offices and the Wellness Center.

Buchanan said the Rec Center will accommodate the expected increase outlined in student body of President David Leebron's Vision for the Second Century. With the exception of the swim team, varsity athletics will have their own training facilities at other locations, such as Autry Court.

"[The new Rec Center] will be, first and foremost, a recreational facility - ---one that accommodates athletics," University Architect David Rodd said.---

Due to the ongoing renovation work at Autry, the present weight room, dance studio and recreation check-in will move to a temporary building located between the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium and Autry. The move is scheduled for late June, and those facilities will remain until completion of the new Rec Center. The former recreation spaces will be demolished to make way for a concession stand as well restrooms.

Project cost and donor financing will be announced at the Rec Center's groundbreaking ceremony April 22.

Collaborative Research Center

The tallest Rice building reached its maximum height of ten stories last month. On March 28, Houston leaders gathered for a topping-out ceremony at the $300 million, 480,000-square-foot CRC. Construction started in December 2006 and is expected to end April 2009, according to the FE&P Web site.

The CRC is an attempt to spur cooperative efforts in medical research between Rice and Texas Medical Center institutions, such as Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the UT Health Science Center at Houston, according to a Rice News press release.

Building tenants have not been finalized.

The CRC will house eight floors of research space, a 280-seat auditorium, a 100-seat seminar room, classrooms and three levels of underground parking. Retail space has been set aside for a restaurant and coffee shop. In addition, planners designed the site with the possibility of building a second research tower with up to 200,000 square feet of space.

Soon-to-be completed

On Thursday, April 24, the Brochstein Pavilion adjacent to Fondren Library will open. The glass-encased structure will house a new coffee shop and feature a large outdoor plaza. Major landscaping work is currently underway on the grassy central quadrangle between Herring Hall and the Rice Memorial Center. When completed, the pavilion will contain new grass, new sidewalks, an elm grove, fountains and seating. In an effort to control the flooding issues that occur in this section of campus, the design plans factor in a new irrigation and drainage system.

Weather-induced delays in the project forced KTRU to move its annual Outdoor Show from the RMC to the IM fields. However, preparation is underway for opening day, FE&P Manager of Communications Susann Glenn said.

"Work will be 99.9% complete when it is reopened on April 24," Glenn said.

A major headache for south college students will also disappear in the next few months, as construction concludes on the south plant. Susann Glenn-The plant, located south of Wiess College, will become fully operational on July 31.

Crews have started to remove fencing from around the work site and have already pulled back on Alumni Road south of the Inner Loop. The FE&P Web site said the road beside Wiess College will be reopened by April 30, and all fencing should come down by July 1.

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