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January 26, 2007 > News > College construction to start in September

College construction to start in September

By Lily Chun and Lisa Law | Thresher staff

When students move into two new north colleges in Fall 2009, they will find more students, more space and more single rooms.

Along with the new adjoining servery, the new colleges will take up more than 300,000 square feet: McMurtry College will be about 160,000 square feet, and the 11th college will be about 143,000 square feet. Approximately 40 percent of the rooms in the new colleges will be singles with the other 60 percent consisting of doubles and suites.

Senior Project Manager Eleni Barzouka said she is working with consultants to finalize issues such as permits, utilities, plumbing and designs, but the colleges will be ready for students by Fall 2009.

Utility work for the colleges will begin in June, and construction will begin in September.

Barzouka said students should not worry about utility problems at existing north colleges.

“We will have to do some temporary utility work so we don’t lose power at Jones or Martel,” she said.

The new colleges will have double-loaded corridors — with rooms on both sides of a hallway — because a Facilities, Engineering and Planning survey found students like the sense of community they get from that layout.

“The new colleges should have indoor hallways because that’s where you meet people,” Brown College sophomore Gillian Smith said.

Rice hired two architectural firms last fall to design McMurtry and the 11th college. Hopkins Architects, a London firm, was contracted in September to create the schematic concepts, and Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas of Norfolk, Virg., was selected as the executive firm in October. Hanbury will contract other architects, handle the construction documents and oversee the entire project.

Barzouka said Rice considered a combination of both quality and expense when choosing architects.

Hopkins Architects has worked on projects with both Princeton and Yale Universities and on many buildings in London. Hanbury has been involved with colleges such as Tulane, Rhodes, UTEP, Baylor and Lousiana State University.

Barzouka said she is especially excited about working with Hanbury.

“They’re the best university housing architects in the States,” she said. “They are very experienced, very involved academically and keep up with the latest trends in colleges.”

McMurtry and the still-unnamed 11th college were approved by the Boart of Trustees last May in response to President David Leebron’s Vision for the Second Century, which calls for increasing undergraduate enrollment by 30 percent by 2009.

Each college will house approximately 325 students, about 50 more than Brown College, the current largest. McMurtry College will be built on the field south of Jones College and west of the O’Connor House, and the 11th college will be built west of Martel on the site of the current Abercrombie parking lot.

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