CEB open house features architect
The Rice Engineering Alumni Association sponsored an open house at the Computational Engineering Building Wednesday to showcase the building in progress to engineering students, faculty and alumni.
Doug Ashcraft of Walter P. Moore and Associates, a Houston architecture firm which helped design the building, spoke about the building process.
"I must say that it was quite an experience having team meetings on this project," he said.
He commented on the prominence of columns in the structure. Two types of columns are found in the CEB -- traditonal structural columns, called "anti-gravity devices," and columns housing the support structure of the building, termed "robot columns."
Ashcraft said that the columns define the "architectural space" of the building. Pointing out a column in the building's atrium, he commented that this was the first project that he has worked on where the architect had asked him to add unneeded columns for aesthetical purposes.
He said the project posed a number of challenges. For example, unlike the typical office building, the CEB required isolated temperature controls. At the same time, the university demanded that the building be energy efficient. Computer labs in the building will also have to operate continuously for weeks at a time.
The featured speaker -- the building designer, John Outram from John Outram and Associates of London -- focused on both concrete and abstract topics.
Outram described architecture as a field "left with everything [in the design process] that can't be explained." He said that this differentiates architects from engineers.
He said in order to build the CEB to the specifications he was given, the concrete between the floors had to be very thin. He complimented the contractor on his work on the concrete.
"In a way, it's a shame to cover it up because it's so amazing," Outram said.
Outram also discussed his "robot columns." He said that this design differs from the modern architectural notion of hiding pipes and tubes. The columns will contain much of the building's infrastructure, including the air conditioning.
"[The] service core has distributed itself around the building in the form of columns," he said.
Outram said he enjoyed working on the project "enormously" and was looking forward to its completion.
"When it's finished, we will understand that there is nothing more complicated than something simple," he said.
The building will house the Computational and Applied Mathematics, Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering departments, the Computer and Information Technology Institute, the Center for Research on Parallel Computing, the dean of engineering, computer labs and an auditorium.
A $45 million fundraising campaign is currently underway to pay for the CEB and associated infrastructure improvements, endowments, chairs, lectureships and fellowships.
This item appeared in the News section of the March 15, 1996 issue.
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