Current RMC to remain, second building to open in 2027
A brand-new, second student center will open by Fall 2027, president Reggie DesRoches announced in a March 3 email to campus. The current Rice Memorial Center will not be demolished, and will continue to house Rice Coffeehouse, Pub and student media during construction over the next two years. It will undergo renovations after the second building is complete.
The final structure, a “student-focused hub” called the Moody Center Complex for Student Life, will include the current and new student centers and surround the Central Quad.
The new student center — funded through a collective $115 million gift — will open four years after its original timeline, and nearly five years after Rice first started to plan the new design.
In 2022, construction was delayed due to supply chain issues, pushing the deadline for a new student center to the end of 2024. Then, Rice “reset” the project in 2023 — scrapping the original design — after David Adjaye, founder of the architecture firm Rice had retained for the project, was accused of sexual misconduct.
Rice has now hired a new architecture firm, Olson Kundig, to lead the project.
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