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Rice University broke ground on the 477,000-sf Collaborative Research Center in Houston in December of 2006. The 10-story facility will be sited on 2.9 acres and will accommodate bioscience and biotechnology research. The estimated construction cost of the building is between $200 million and $300 million with occupancy slated for early 2009. A tower housing eight floors of research laboratories will rest on a base platform that will include a 280-seat auditorium, a 100-seat seminar room, classrooms, a vivarium, three levels of underground parking, and 10,000 sf of retail. Two stories of shell space may also be constructed to allow for future expansion, and a second research tower atop the base platform could add an additional 150,000-sf.

The design architect for the project is Skidmore, Owings and Merrill with Linbeck as general contractor and FKP Architects as local associate architect. The facility will be developed and run by Rice and other Texas Medical Center-affiliated institutions including Baylor College of Medicine; The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; Texas Children's Hospital; and The Methodist Hospital Research Institute.