Rice Architecture and Rice Design Alliance are well represented with this week’s announcement of the shortlist for the Houston Endowment Headquarters International Design Competition, which includes Associate Professor Troy Schaum of SCHAUM/SHIEH Architects; Rice Architecture alumnus Kevin Daly (M.Arch. ’85) of Kevin Daly Architects; and Rice Design Alliance President-Elect Doug Childers, principal and director of commercial, Houston, at HKS.
Schaum's firm, in collaboration with HKS and Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture, and Kevin Daly Architects, in collaboration with TLS Landscape Architecture, Productora, and Transsolar are two of only four teams shortlisted from 121 worldwide submissions to create concept designs for a new Houston Endowment headquarters. The other finalist teams are: Deborah Berke Partners with DAVID RUBIN Land Collective and Atelier Ten; and Olson Kundig with Surfacedesign, Inc.
“The selected teams represent a diverse and extremely talented group of architects, each of whose body of work is both cerebral and innovative. Equally gratifying is the number of Rice Architecture-connected individuals included in the teams. The bar is indeed set high for their proposals,” said John J. Casbarian, interim dean of Rice Architecture and the Harry K. and Albert K. Smith Professor of Architecture.
The finalists were selected by a Shortlisting Panel, which included the client, senior client representatives, Malcolm Reading Consultants, and a group of advisors including Michelle Addington, dean, The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture; Sheryl Kolasinski, chief operating officer, The Houston Zoo; Michael Kubo, assistant professor, Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design, University of Houston; and Maria Nicanor, executive director, Rice Design Alliance, Rice School of Architecture.
The first stage of the competition launched in June 2019 and is expected to conclude in November 2019 with an announcement of the winner. The initiative, on a site adjoining Spotts Park near downtown Houston, will embed Houston Endowment in the community and strengthen its work bringing people together from public, private, non-profit, and philanthropic sectors to achieve lasting, positive change for low-income and under-served sections of the local population.
The headquarters, 40,000 square feet in size, will be the organization’s new public face and will provide dedicated space for its team and community partners, including healthy workspaces, accessible and inspiring meeting spaces, and flexible and innovative engagement facilities.
After a site visit in Houston and a detailed briefing, all teams will have 10 weeks to create a concept design before the Selection Committee meets to interview them. The Selection Committee includes Jesse H. Jones II, chair, Houston Endowment Board; Guy Hagstette, vice president of parks and civic projects, Kinder Foundation; Joseph C. Dilg, board member, Houston Endowment; Ann Stern, president and CEO, Houston Endowment; Tom Forney, president and CEO, Forney Construction; and Malcolm Reading, competition director. Two further additional members will be announced on the competition website in the coming weeks.
For further updates, visit the competition website here.