Summer construction, had me a blast

By Sarah Rutledge     8/21/08 7:00pm

Much like last summer, students returning this fall may be surprised to see new green fences on campus. Facilities, Engineering & Planning Communications Director Susann Glenn, however, hopes students will be more impressed by the progress FE&P has made with its construction projects.

North colleges

Glenn said Duncan and McMurtry Colleges are on schedule, even after the June 22 accident when a construction worker was killed and seven more were injured after heavy winds knocked over concrete blocks on the work site, trapping a worker underneath. The construction site was under investigation for four days after the incident, but Glenn said this did not put the project behind schedule since the deadlines are purposely conservative estimates to allow for inclement weather and other challenges for FE&P. Both colleges, which are being built simultaneously so they can open together next fall, are on schedule. In May, both colleges' ground floors had been built and walls were beginning to arrive. Now, the colleges' third floors have been laid out.

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FE&P is setting down bathroom pods - entire bathroom units assembled off site - at both colleges because these are environmentally friendly, Glenn said. Rice is the first university in the United States to use bathroom pods in a building.

South Colleges

Lovett College received new heating and air conditioning units this summer, which means individual rooms have their own thermostats. Previously, one thermostat controlled an entire floor. FE&P used one of the dorms' closets to hold the fan coil units for the new air conditioning system. Half of that closet was converted to a California-style closet, which comes with extra shelving and drawers to make up for lost space.

Additionally, Lovett's Resident Associate suite underwent an efficiency renovation and now boasts bamboo floors and energy-efficient appliances, Glenn said.

The Hanszen Alumni Grove is complete and then fences are down after almost six months of work. The project created a park-like atmosphere in the grassy area between Sid Richardson College, Hanszen, Will Rice College and Baker Colleges, Glenn said. After graduation, FE&P worked on the lower half of the area, which they had left open to accommodate student move-out schedules, Glenn said.

"Summer is when we try to gear up and get the work done as fast as possible."

Glenn said planning is currently underway for a new Will Rice/Baker College server after the north colleges are completed.

South Plant

The green fences have come down behind Wiess College to reveal the all-but-complete South Plant. The plant will provide the power to the Collaborative Research Center, located on University Blvd. and Main St. Glenn said this plant will help provide the energy to the southern part of campus, after FE&P finishes the north colleges. The tower next to the plant arrived over the summer, and is designed to be the exhaust flue when the plant changes its energy to co-generation, a cleaner source of power. In October, the tower will be covered with glass.

The plant also contains a green roof installed over the electrical room and solar panels on emergency generators.

FE&P is finishing the South Plant's landscaping and Glenn predicts the plant will be complete in the next two weeks.

Perhaps most exciting to those in Wiess and Hanszen Colleges, Alumni Drive will open after one and a half years of its closure, when the South Plant project first began.

Rec Center and Autry Court

The Intramural Fields across from the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management are no longer a place for soccer. Instead, one-fourth of the field will be devoted to Rice's new Recreation Center, slated to open next fall. The foundation was poured this summer. Glenn said FE&P is trying to move construction equipment seamlessly through campus without disrupting Rice. She said the Rec Center's location is not as heavily traveled as other spots on campus.

Glenn said Rice should aim for getting as many interested applicants to the school as possible, and it needs to retain these students. She said the Rec Center is a good way to generate interest in the school.

"This is something that is really needed and one of the few projects people are really excited about because it benefits everyone and it's in a location that doesn't affect everyone, and it's long needed," Glenn said.

In another environmental effort, Glenn said FE&P successful moved seven trees from the Rec Center site to the unused IM fields next to it.

By next fall, when the Rec Center becomes a center for all students, faculty and staff to exercise, Autry Court will become a primarily student-athlete building complete with athletic department offices including tutoring, administration and life skills. IM sports lockers, however, will be in Autry Court.

Glenn said the summer work on Autry is mainly internal, with structuring offices.

Autry now has new restrooms, new concession stands and easier access to the practice court. And when the project is complete, visitors to Autry will notice the entry is lighter. Glass walls will allow visitors to watch basketball games when they step inside the gym. Glenn said FE&P plans to build a basketball store, new ticket office and a market office.

FE&P finished a transition space from Autry to Reckling Field. Previously, visitors walking from the gym to the baseball field would walk through the parking lot. The green space allows a safer walkway to the field, Glenn said.

Lifetime Physical Activity Program classes in Autry's dance studios will move into a temporary building next to Autry until they can be moved to the new rec center next fall.

She said Autry is on track to be completed Nov. 5.

Oshman Design Kitchen

Oshman Design Kitchen, located in the former Hicks Kitchen, will become a genuine workspace when Ryon Lab workers move into the facilities Sept. 2. The building will have a green roof in October and will have new glass windows in the next few weeks, Glenn said. She said FE&P is working to connect the water-permeable concrete sidewalk behind the FE&P building with the new Duncan College by Oshman as well.

Off-Campus Construction

The CRC on University Blvd. and Main St. now has a brick facade and its windows have gone up. Glenn said it will open next April and move-in will begin in June.

Rice University Children's Campus, which will provide daycare for the children of faculty and staff, is scheduled to open for its first class Sept. 2, after FE&P began work by clearing the site in May.

The new graduate apartments on Shakespeare St. and Morningside Dr., scheduled to open next January, are the second Rice-offered graduate housing.

FE&P also added 500 extra spaces to the existing Greenbriar Lot when it resurfaced the parking lot this summer and reconfigured the spaces, Glenn said.

She said the Rice campus proves challenging to expand.

"We have to protect the green space we do have, but we have to expand and bring in quality teaching, so it's a balancing act," Glenn said.

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