Rice University opens $190M Ralph S. O'Connor engineering building – Houston Chronicle

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Rice University has opened the Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering Science, expanding the institution’s research facilities and providing easier connections between two major areas of campus.
The 250,000-square-foot building has been one of Rice’s largest projects over the past decade, with a roughly $190 million price tag and space for about 50 research laboratories, two classrooms, a  café, and meeting and event areas. Parts of O’Connor will remain under construction until 2026, even as the classrooms and some of the labs are already occupied.
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Rice officials say they hope the building will attract top-tier faculty while the university deepens its research mission: O’Connor will house the new Rice Advanced Materials Institute and support work in the School of Engineering and School of Natural Science. 
“This was to give some of our biggest stars a new location to start up their new labs and then also to use as a recruitment tool to bring in the best from around the world,” said Brad Thacker, director of operations for the building. “They get to see an empty shell … and they can sit down and custom-build what their lab would look like for specific research.”
The building will increase in use the next few years as faculty move their work from other buildings. Chemists and physicists will focus some of that research on nanomaterials, photonics and quantum properties of matter, said Thomas Killian, dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences.
The firm Skidmore, Owings & Merril designed O’Connor with input from faculty who wanted their laboratories to fit certain research needs, such as having ceilings with exposed utilities. The building can accommodate wet and dry labs and more than 250 fume hoods, project manager Angie Chen said.
Science and engineering are also on full display with floor-to-ceiling windows from the hallways into the labs. And graduate students have designated offices outside of their workspace.
“This is superb lab space for nanotechnology research,” said James Tour, professor of chemistry and professor of materials science and nanoengineering. “The hood designs, the safety features and electrical layout are all helpful. The building ambiance with the great study and meeting areas, huddle spaces, coffee shop and general layout make this feel more like a high-tech Silicon Valley research center than a university building.”
The building’s first occupants began moving in mid-July, and some say they’ve at least noticed a difference in their own efficiency. 
“I spend a lot of time just looking for things, and now everything here is much more organized,” said Lucas Eddy, an applied physics Ph.D, student. “It’s much more attuned for us, so I think it will make things just a bit easier.”  
Eddy joked that once the café is up and running later this fall, he might not have to leave O’Connor to get food or coffee – a perk that also has its downsides, given his already long hours.
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The building, constructed by Anslow-Bryant Construction, is also accessible to students and faculty who don’t need it for classes or research.  
At five stories tall, O’Connor anchors the engineering quadrangle on one side and several residential colleges on the other. A modern and open interior connects the two areas, as does an outdoor breezeway – a change from the former Abercrombie Engineering Laboratory, which was demolished in May 2021 to make way for O’Connor.
“It was a very old 1940s building that served its great function of research at the time, but it really blocked off the circulation from our students over to the engineering quad,” project manager Angie Chen said. “Now we have this building that has open communication … really to activate this whole engineering quad area.”
The building is named after Ralph S. O’Connor, a longtime Rice trustee who died in 2018. He left the university $57 million from his estate, endowing part of the building that will cost $100 million to construct, according to Rice officials. Chen estimates that amenities, including lab spaces, will add about $90 million to the cost once completed. 
Samantha Ketterer is a Houston Chronicle reporter covering higher education. She can be reached at samantha.ketterer@houstonchronicle.com.
Since joining the staff in 2018, Samantha has also covered criminal justice and the Harris County courthouse. She is a former reporting fellow for the Dallas Morning News’ state bureau and a former city hall reporter for The Galveston County Daily News.
Samantha, who is from Houston’s suburbs, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and is a proud alumna of The Daily Texan.

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