Rice Receives 2006 Good Brick Award, AIA 50 Year Award

Renovation of the historic Wiess President’s House, 2 Sunset Boulevard, has earned Rice University its third Good Brick Award from the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance (GHPA).

Wiess House

William Ward Watkin, supervising architect for the Rice campus, designed the Wiess House in 1920. Subsequent renovations and additions were designed by architects H. T. Lindeberg and John Staub in 1926 and 1936, respectively. The Wiess family donated the house to Rice in 1974, but the university struggled to find a use for the deed-restricted residential property. Finally, in 2003, the opportunity arose to renovate the house as a “White House” that would serve as a public venue for Rice functions as well as the home of the university president.

Although the renovation is not a strict historic restoration, the design team set out to capture the spirit of Watkin’s original design while strengthening the visual connection to the Rice campus. The team included W.O. Neuhaus Architects; Well Group/Jerry Jeanmard, Inc., Interiors; and SWA Group Landscape Architects.

“Rice University has accomplished an exemplary feat with its adaptive reuse of the historic Wiess House as the university president’s house,” noted Natalye Appel ’80, chair of the Good Brick Award jury. “The design team has restored the stately elegance of the house and its entry court and gardens while modernizing its use—a project truly deserving of a Good Brick Award.”

GHPA previously recognized Rice University with Good Bricks in 1994 for the renovation of Lovett Hall (1912) and in 2003 for the renovation of Howard Keck Hall (1926). A complete roster of Good Brick Award recipients, including photos and descriptions, may be viewed online at www.ghpa.org.

During its Cornerstone Dinner, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Houston Chapter, also recognized Rice Stadium with the AIA 50 Year Award for distinguished architecture of lasting value. To qualify for the award, a building must still be used for its original purpose and be substantially unaltered.

“At a distant scale, the stadium serves as a sweeping and elegant edge to the Rice University campus,” said AIA jury member Nonya Grenader ’94. “On closer look, it is a study in rhythm and proportion with slender yet powerful columns against horizontal tiers of seating. When built in 1950, it offered an innovative contrast to the existing campus—a modern composition, magnificently revealing its structure.”

The 70,000-seat open air stadium, designed by Hermon Lloyd, W. B. Morgan, and Milton McGinty, was built in only nine months.