Houstonist Flickr Photo of the Day - After a Late Night at Work
H-Town Rock
The Brochstein Pavilion, Rice University's newest set of facades on campus, will open tomorrow for a sneak-peak preview for Rice students, faculty and staff. It will be open to the public starting Friday April 25th and promises to offer guests a wide range of tasty (though probably spendy) treats including coffee, snacks and sandwiches. The Broch. Pav. is situated smack in the middle of a central courtyard between the back of the Fondren Library, Chapel and RMC. Not that there's a lack of green space at Rice but we can't help but wonder if a second, or replacement coffee house, right next to the old one, is really what would appease a growing cafe culture at Rice. Though the landscaping is rather pleasant.
The architecture of the Pavilion is in the vain of the Menil -- modern, white, tectonic, but without the poetry, and in stark contrast to Rice's dominant southwestern meets Romanesque style. One thing's for certain, for a building that's almost not there it has a commanding presence, which we attribute mostly to its impressive roof screen and brazen whiteness. But while we might have collective reservations about its light steel members and huge panels of glass (why am I thinking about the three little pigs here?), the promised quality of the coffee, interior acoustics and r-value of all that glass, the Brochstein Pavilion is at this point a pleasant addition to Rice.
More info on the pavilion and upcoming events can be found on Rice's Media website.
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There's a long tradition of "follies" in gardens and parks, buildings that are whimsical or fantastic that serve as teahouses or cafés or rendezvous points or visual foci. So I don't mind that the building isn't contextual.
But I wonder why Rice always is looking to New York and Europe for architects instead of Central and South America or Asia? Especially when our climate is semi-tropical. Also why isn't something small scale like this pavillion a test platform for architectural experiment - with new materials, or green energy production, or building techniques that are more radical?
The architect Phifer is excellent, as nearly all the architects at Rice have been, but Rice itself rarely seems to be the site of their very best works.
As a Rice Employee, I am interested to see whether or not people really use the services and the structure does well.
I'm glad to see at least some of the fencing around campus go down...even though the new Rec Center just added a new area of fencing.