Comments on: New Physics Building at Rice: Fifties Courtyard Block

By: iMidget

iMidget — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:18:02 +0000

The grounds at Rice are ideal for higher levels of thinking. Take the student out of the city to allow for more individual thought. Of course, the city has it’s educational purposes too, as the university spends a great amount of effort to keep the students involved outside of campus life.

By: davers

davers — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:33:55 +0000

Yes we all love playing a friendly round of ultimate frisbee in Valhalla.

By: markd

markd — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:11:36 +0000

What about Valhalla?

Last time I was there I think it was 50¢ Pearl beer, all night, every night.

By: Jessica1

Jessica1 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:54:32 +0000

The rectangular quad between brochstein and baker institute is quite nice, if you can coexist with the aggressive squirrels. Lots of shade. Not sure if students hang out there at all, but I know they set up a band stage there last spring that seemed to work pretty well.

By: Carol

Carol — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:03:49 +0000

James Bute Park is truly lovely. But the location is netherworldy at this point. And all I ever see there is homeless folks, as RWB said.

By: RWB

RWB — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:55:40 +0000

The area where the “grove” is was always very attractive and shady. Maybe doing something with it besides having walkways will encourage students to linger a bit. It’s weird how places where people congregate sometimes appear spontaneously but often have to be goosed into existence. I remember reading (it may have been here) about how Discovery Green was kept from being a “dead” space by having events there continuously. Contrast that with the lovely but isolated James Bute Park, which is scarcely more than a hobo campground at this point.

By: Carol

Carol — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:37:57 +0000

There are lots of intramural fields still left around campus where undergrads play frisbee, soccer, etc. They also hang out at Brochstein Pavilion, which opened last year, and there is the new “John and Ann Grove” that is supposed to attract students but I don’t really know if it does.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:32:23 +0000

Students hang out behind Fondren at the Brochstein Pavilion. That space has since been dubbed the “central quad.” It is the focus of the administration’s push to create a more unified social space for undergrads, grads, faculty, and visitors.

Whenever they get around to completely renovating the Student Center, this will become very obvious.

By: kjb434

kjb434 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:10:14 +0000

I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I guess the layout and style of the university reminds me of a more “laid back” atmosphere. The courtyards, shorter buildings, lack of density add to this feel for me.

Whereas schools like Loyola and Tulane in New Orleans have much more of a city feel (their campuses or campi? or much more cramped).

By: RWB

RWB — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:05:42 +0000

One word I would never use to describe Rice is “lazy”.

In any case, I was just reminiscing. Not criticizing. When I got my MBA at Rice (many years later than my undergraduate degree), I looked out every day over the enormous courtyard bounded by McNair Hall, the Baker Institute, and the Shepherd School. But undergrads rarely hung out there for some reason. Hence my question–where do they go to play frisbee golf (or whatever the 2009 equivalent is)?

By: kjb434

kjb434 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:50:43 +0000

It’s time for rice to become a proper urban school versus a lazy suburban university.

They could go up more if their self imposed rules allow them and then keep the court yards.

By: RWB

RWB — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:41:21 +0000

That rapidly diminishing “courtyard” in front of Hamman Hall used to be a long lovely quadrangle which, because it was not closed off with shrubs like the main quad, was well used by the students for picnics, studying, playing frisbee, etc. All back when I was an undergrad, several spasms of building ago. Where do undergrads hang out now, when they want to hang out outside?