Rice University Martel, Jones, + Brown Colleges

This 192,452-square-foot, 337-bed housing and visiting faculty apartment complex provides student residences, classrooms, and dining facilities for Rice University’s Martel, Jones, and Brown Colleges.

PGAL served as Architect-of-Record on the project, which also includes new Master’s Houses, where faculty members live and organize student activities for all three colleges.

Spacious layout, modern furnishings, and ample natural light make the units highly marketable and consistent with off-campus housing. The design blends seamlessly with other university buildings through the use of common building materials such as St. Joe Brick, precast concrete, and verde cipollino marble, which was used on Rice’s first academic building, Lovett Hall.

A circular stairway tower connecting the residential wings to the commons building at Martel College creates a strong focal point and forms a unique object within the space of the courtyard. The exposed concrete structure of each floor emphasizes a layered scheme with a strong base, middle, and top. The entrance to the Martel College building courtyard is expressed by a large sally port entry facing the main campus.

At Jones College, a new residential wing with a central stair tower unites the two previously separated existing buildings and provides a new commons on the first floor. Similarly, the entrance to the Brown College commons faces the main campus, and features a colonnade of tall cast-in-place columns set against a wall of blue glazed clay brick.

Classrooms and student living spaces feature high-speed data communications outlets at each student desk. The commons buildings for each college are designed for dining, movies, and theatre productions with concealed theatrical rigging and lighting. The three commons buildings are united by a combined kitchen/servery.