Comments on: Glass Is Now in Session: New Rice Coffee Plaza and Pavilion http://swamplot.com/glass-is-now-in-session-new-rice-coffee-plaza-and-pavilion/2008-04-22/ Houston, Texas real estate development, home buying, landscape, and design Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:07:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Evan http://swamplot.com/glass-is-now-in-session-new-rice-coffee-plaza-and-pavilion/2008-04-22/#comment-656 Evan Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:53:45 +0000 http://swamplot.com/glass-is-now-in-session-new-rice-coffee-plaza-and-pavilion/2008-04-22/#comment-656 1. The pavilion serves as a center focus for campus that the RMC cannot serve as. Furthermore, it will provide necessary space for when they rebuild the RMC in 5 years or so. 2. Construction actually added more trees than there were before. Plus, construction makes more usable green space than before. What used to be mud is now grass. 3. Rice current uses rooms very inefficiently. They're adding more class times to fix any room space issues, not to mention planned construction of a new physics building and eventually a new social sciences building. 1. The pavilion serves as a center focus for campus that the RMC cannot serve as. Furthermore, it will provide necessary space for when they rebuild the RMC in 5 years or so.

2. Construction actually added more trees than there were before. Plus, construction makes more usable green space than before. What used to be mud is now grass.

3. Rice current uses rooms very inefficiently. They’re adding more class times to fix any room space issues, not to mention planned construction of a new physics building and eventually a new social sciences building.

]]> By: Grant http://swamplot.com/glass-is-now-in-session-new-rice-coffee-plaza-and-pavilion/2008-04-22/#comment-651 Grant Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:29:52 +0000 http://swamplot.com/glass-is-now-in-session-new-rice-coffee-plaza-and-pavilion/2008-04-22/#comment-651 The temporary fences around the site were opened up last week, and at long last we students were allowed a close look at the nearly-completed pavillion. It looks like something Mies Van der Rohe would have come up with - it is truly stunning. But among us students it raises some questions: -Why do we need this pavillion when the adjacent Rice Memorial Center already has everything the pavillion has, including a coffee shop and a sandwich place? -Given the fact that our campus has jumped on the green bandwagon, is it hypocritical to sacrifice a rather large piece of green space to a building that serves little purpose? -Given that our student enrollment will increase dramatically as soon as the two new residental colleges are completed, would it be more responsible to focus on adding more classroom space? Our administration seems to care more about ribbon-cutting than about meeting the long-term needs of our university. The temporary fences around the site were opened up last week, and at long last we students were allowed a close look at the nearly-completed pavillion. It looks like something Mies Van der Rohe would have come up with - it is truly stunning. But among us students it raises some questions:
-Why do we need this pavillion when the adjacent Rice Memorial Center already has everything the pavillion has, including a coffee shop and a sandwich place?
-Given the fact that our campus has jumped on the green bandwagon, is it hypocritical to sacrifice a rather large piece of green space to a building that serves little purpose?
-Given that our student enrollment will increase dramatically as soon as the two new residental colleges are completed, would it be more responsible to focus on adding more classroom space?
Our administration seems to care more about ribbon-cutting than about meeting the long-term needs of our university.

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