IMEG provided structural engineering design services for the new 250,000-sf Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science. The six-story building houses faculty research laboratories, maker space, prototyping facilities, undergraduate and graduate instruction facilities, and assembly and conferencing facilities. Faculty and staff offices for departments within Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering and Wiess School of Natural Sciences are also located in the new facility.
The building includes five floors above-grade and a one-story basement. The structure of the building consists of a cast-in-place pan-joist concrete frame with post-tensioned girders.

The superstructure has been designed to provide a maximum vibrational acceleration of 2000 mips per the project guidelines. Equipment needing even more stringent vibrational control will be located in the basement. A retention system comprised of load-bearing soldier piers extends around the perimeter of the basement. A small event space is located on the top floor of the building with a roof terrace overlooking the adjacent Engineering Quad.