HOUSTON, TX — Rice University celebrated the grand opening of Susan and Fayez Sarofim Hall, a 94,000-square-foot facility designed to serve as the new home of the Department of Art. The building consolidates Rice's visual arts programs, long scattered across campus, into a single space.
"Sarofim Hall is a bold realization of Rice's enduring commitment to the arts — a space that invites imagination, fosters collaboration, and opens new doors for creative expression," said Robert T. Ladd, Chair of Rice's Board of Trustees. "This remarkable facility honors the vision and generosity of Susan and Fayez Sarofim and so many others whose dedication has made it possible."
For Charles Renfro, Partner at Diller Scofidio + Renfro and a Rice graduate in both art and architecture, the project was personal.
"As a double major in art and architecture, nothing could be more satisfying and humbling than having the opportunity to design a new building for Rice's art department, a new space which will unite my chosen disciplines," Renfro said. "Sarofim Hall will bring these disparate media together under one roof and, in so doing, allow each of them to blossom."
The building's design nods to Rice's early Art Barn and Media Center, buildings once supported by John and Dominique de Menil, blending exposed steel portals, concrete, and wood with glass walls that cut through the structure, filling it with natural light and symbolizing the intersection of visual and performance art. Oversized industrial doors create an indoor-outdoor flow, transforming studios, workshops, galleries, and performance spaces into dynamic "living rooms" and workyards. Inside, flexible studios for film, media, photography, printmaking, drawing, painting, and sculpture sit alongside a 215-seat cinema and performance lab, all within a durable shell designed to adapt as the needs of artists and disciplines evolve.
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Beyond its architectural statements, Sarofim Hall is meant to be a living building — in use around the clock, serving students in every medium, and welcoming the Houston public for exhibitions, film screenings in the Rice Cinema, and collaborative events with neighboring institutions. Austin Commercial served as general contractor for the facility, which was constructed to LEED Gold standards.
