David Adjaye Tapped to Design New Student Center at Rice University
Rendering courtesy Adjaye Associates
Architects & Firms
Rice University in Houston has selected Adjaye Associates to lead the design of a new student center, replacing the existing Rice Memorial Center. The proposal by 2021 RIBA Gold Medal winner David Adjaye beat out schemes from two other undisclosed firms in a competition for the commission.
The three-story, 80,000-square-foot structure will incorporate an existing memorial to 10 Navy ROTC students who died in a 1953 plane crash, as well as the chapel and cloisters, and will add a new multicultural center and rooftop auditorium.
“We are extremely humbled and honored to have won the competition to design the new student center at Rice University,” Adjaye said in a statement. “This is an important and inspiring project for Adjaye Associates and we look forward to collaborating with Rice to imagine a new campus anchor point that engages its community in the most inclusive way possible.”
It has been a momentous year for the Ghanaian-British architect, who was a keynote speaker at RECORD’s Innovation Conference. His firm recently completed the 1199SEIU healthcare workers union building in New York and, earlier this fall, unveiled the design for the new Princeton University Art Museum, expected to be completed in 2024.
Construction on the Rice University Student Center is expected to begin in early 2022, with completion slated for fall 2023.
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