Keck Hall renovation combines Rice tradition with state-of-the-art laboratory system

CONTACT: Margot
Dimond
PHONE: (713) 348-6775
EMAIL: mdimond@rice.edu

KECK HALL
RENOVATION COMBINES RICE TRADITION
WITH STATE-OF-THE-ART LABORATORY
DESIGN

Rice University’s commitment to keeping its architectural traditions
while providing the best in educational facilities will be on display at the
rededication of Howard Keck Hall on Thursday, September 21, at 9 a.m.

The newly renovated
facility—built in 1925 as the Chemistry Building—is now home to the molecular
biophysics group of biochemistry & cell biology and the new Department of
Bioengineering.

A Rice landmark, Keck
Hall was recently renamed (from Dell Butcher Hall) in honor of a former Rice
trustee who was also the former chairman of the Keck Foundation, which has
pledged $14 million towards the renovation project in the form of a matching
grant. The project is part of Rice: The Next Century Campaign, which will
officially kick off on September 23.

In 1923, when plans were
announced for the new Chemistry Building, The Rice Thresher student
newspaper predicted it would be “the finest, largest and best equipped building
for the study of chemistry in the South, and . . .the equal of any in America.”

But by 1998, age and a
series of renovations had taken their toll, concealing many of the building’s
beautiful elements. Laboratory design specialists FKP Architects were retained
and instructed to preserve and enhance the building and its special features
while providing world-class laboratories and education space. The four-story
building was completely gutted for redesign and renovation, while the exterior
brick and stone were restored.

“Since Keck Hall was one
of the earliest buildings constructed on the Rice campus, its historical
significance to the university and community is considerable,” said John

Crane, president of FKP
Architects. “As architects, our mission was to maintain the historic integrity of the building, while at
the same time adapting the existing space to accommodate state-of-the-art
research technology.”

Keck Hall is part of a
continuum of building design at Rice. When it was built, William Ward Watkin was
the lead architect working with Cram and Ferguson, the Boston architectural firm
that had designed the original campus master plan. Watkin, who had worked on
Rice’s buildings as an employee of Cram and Ferguson, had joined the Rice
faculty as a professor of architecture.

The building marked a
transition in the architectural development of the campus, principally due to
Watkin’s more prominent role. Designed in the Lombard-Romanesque style, the
northern Italian architectural style favored by Watkin, the Chemistry Building
was much larger than other laboratory buildings of its time. It also had a more
complex shape, with sections such as the lecture hall jutting out to catch the
prevailing southeast breeze—important in the days before air
conditioning.

Some of the more
interesting features of the building are its elaborate decorations in both
carved stone and cast terra cotta and tile, with numerous symbols referring to
chemistry and alchemy.

Many Rice dignitaries of
the time appear on the building in symbolic form, including Watkin, T-square in
hand, with architectural students bowing down in due respect, and Chemistry
professor Harry B. Weiser, his head replacing the crested head of a huge winged
dragon.

Other symbols include
circular designs called enigmas, originally used by alchemists to confuse
the observer, and circular ceramic symbols for a variety of metals, water, acid,
alkali, and other elements. In the octagonal part of the building’s tower, the
first part of the periodic table is recorded in contemporary symbols.

The Keck Hall renovation
project was achieved in two phases. The first phase included 88,490 square feet
of renovations for new research laboratories for Molecular Biophysics and
Bioengineering, a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance suite, teaching laboratories,
classrooms, departmental and dean’s offices, clerical, faculty and ancillary
laboratory support spaces. The second phase is a new 13,740 square feet addition
to the north, designed to match the existing building. It will house new
laboratory space for Molecular Biophysics and Bioengineering.

“The renovation of the
‘Old Chemistry’ building to Howard Keck Hall has preserved the charm and beauty
of the original design and at the same time provided state-of-the-art facilities
for modern biosciences research,” said Kathleen Matthews, dean of Natural
Sciences. “The preservation of this historic building and its conversion into a
21st century laboratory facility reflect Rice’s commitment both to its historic
roots and to its future.”

The Keck Hall renovation
has received one of four national renovation/modernization citations awarded
this year by the American School and University Architectural Portfolio
competition.