HOUSTON — Rice University, a private, non-profit university in Houston, will soon break ground on the new Moody Center Complex for Student Life (MCCSL), a 75,000-square-foot multi-use hub.����

Serving as a centralized location for essential services, from food services to study spaces to entertainment, the center aims to support connection and interaction between Rice University students and the surrounding community. The project was formally announced earlier this month and is slated for completion in fall 2027. Construction will officially begin with a May 8 groundbreaking.������

“Rice University is dedicated to empowering our students to become leaders who make meaningful impacts around the world,” Reginald DesRoches, Rice president, said in a statement. “The Moody Center Complex for Student Life will be a centerpiece for community, creativity and collaboration, providing our students with the resources and spaces they need to thrive.”��

�鶹������ in the new facility include an extended-hours cafe and coffee shop to facilitate gathering and connection, alongside numerous meeting and collaboration rooms. A large, programming pavilion will open to the central quad to offer dynamic outdoor and indoor events such as lectures, performances and multicultural celebrations. A first-of-its-kind study, tutoring and testing space will be launched inside the facility to promote academic success, and a space devoted to career advancement services will assist students in planning for their futures.����

The MCCSL, designed by Seattle-based architecture firm Olson Kundig alongside Washington-based architecture and planning firm Page, aims to expand student services as the university population steadily rises. This will include the addition of a new space for the dean of undergraduates to support the growing student body. Over the past 10 years, Rice’s enrollment has risen 34%, with almost 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled, according to a university statement.��

“The Moody Center Complex for Student Life is set to become a vibrant cornerstone of student activity at Rice—an open, inclusive and outward-looking space that amplifies the university’s mission to support students in their academic, personal and professional journeys,” said Kelly Fox, executive vice president for operations, finance and support, in a statement.��

To enhance the complex, the neighboring Rice Memorial Center and Ley Student Center will also undergo renovation upon completion of the MCCSL. Students at Rice University will provide input on the redesigns to ensure educational needs are met and reflected.����

A $15 million donation from the Texas-based grantmakers The Brown Foundation will go towards supporting the MCCSL, alongside a $100 million commitment from the Moody Foundation, a group focused on enhancing education in Texas. Aside from the MCCSL, the $100 million will also support 12 campus endowments focused on enriching student opportunity and success.��

“This new state-of-the-art facility will be much more than just a building; it is an investment in the future of every student, supporting them in pursuit of their passions,” said Elle Moody, a 2014 trustee of both the Moody Foundation and Rice, in a statement. “My hope is that it will provide opportunities for our students to form meaningful connections, not only with one another, but also with a vast network of scholars and leaders from local to global communities.”��

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CONROE, Ala. ­— Grand Central Park has announced the addition of Sam Houston State University’s (SHSU) proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine, a major step in fulfilling the master-planned community’s goal of bringing a higher education component to the City of Conroe.

Situated on a 7.3-acre property on I-45 just south of South Loop 336, the college will feature a five-story, 216,000 square foot building. Phase one of the building will be 108,000 square feet with surface parking. A future phase two expansion will add another 108,000 square feet. Surface parking will then be decreased with the addition of a parking garage.

Construction of the building is scheduled to start by the end of 2018 with substantial completion by December 2019.

“An academic setting has always been a part of our long-range plan,” said Shannon League, director of marketing for Grand Central Park. “We’re delighted to serve as the home of Montgomery County’s newest medical school.”

Page, a 500-plus person multidisciplinary architecture and engineering firm with offices in the U.S. and abroad, was awarded the prime architectural and engineering contract in June of 2018 and is working in association with The SLAM Collaborative, a nationally recognized medical school planning and architecture firm.

Page will provide pre-planning and development of project-specific design criteria to support SHSU’s decision-making process to confirm site restrictions and development options. Then, working with the construction manager-at-risk, Vaughn Construction, Page will develop contract documents for construction.

The 107,000-square-foot facility will be constructed less than fifty miles from the SHSU main campus in Hunstville. Instructional spaces intended to support students’ first two years of pre-clinical instruction, research, academic programs, and student life include a teaching theater, a large active learning classroom, case-based learning team rooms, a gross anatomy lab, skills lab, and standardized patient and simulation suites.

In August, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) approved SHSU’s doctorate in osteopathic medicine, bringing the university one step closer to helping millions living in rural and underserved areas of East Texas.

“After approximately four years of researching, analyzing and planning, this endorsement represents a major leap forward in helping to train doctors who will predominately practice in rural, underserved areas,” said SHSU President Dana Hoyt. “Sam Houston is one of the best-suited universities to address our state’s rural healthcare crisis.”

Unlike other medical schools in the state, SHSU’s proposal requires no new state funding and will bring approximately $68 to $93 million annually in new federal funds to Texas. The proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine will collaborate with hospitals in rural East Texas counties to establish residency-training programs that will benefit the people living in those areas. To date, the proposed college has confirmed 20 affiliation agreements with 26 hospitals.

According to the site visit team, comprised of esteemed medical education professionals, who reviewed the proposal, “The proposed school has the potential to set new standards for addressing health care shortages among a patient population that is both rural and underserved and to define through research the relation of social determinants of health to optimal delivery systems.”

“I am humbled at the outpouring of support received from numerous state legislators, community leaders, medical associations, healthcare providers and thousands of Texans. Their confidence in our ability to deliver on our mission is inspiring,” said Hoyt.

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