At Facades+ Houston, Michael Oerth, SOM Associate Principal, and George Ristow, University Architect at Rice University, presented the design for the Ralph S. O’Connor Engineering & Science Building.

Slated for completion in Summer 2023, the project is designed to require remarkably low operational carbon for a laboratory facility. The building’s envelope synthesizes environmentally conscious design strategies with the campus’s distinct architectural identity–historically composed of Byzantine style and Mediterranean Revival architecture. 

The Ralph S O’Connor Engineering & Science Building is SOM’s third opportunity to work with Rice University, following our work as structural engineers of James Turrell’s Twilight Epiphany (2012), and as architects of the Bioscience Research Collaborative Building (2009), which bridges the Rice University and the Texas Medical Center campuses.