instituteRice is a collaborative project that has been underway for a couple of years. I’ve waited to share it until now just to make sure that it’s all up and running properly. In short, it’s a map of the Rice campus that allows a user to move through time and space in order to see the campus change. This screen shot of the title page explains what’s going on here better than I can–I freely admit that I don’t understand the machine, I just feed it:
And here’s the link that takes you to the live map: https://www.instituterice.org/#
There’s a lot here to explore–images, drawings, plans, maps of all aspects of the physical campus from trees to footpaths to buildings –so have at it. Click on everything–it’s fun. And it’s still, of course, a work in progress so we welcome all questions, comments, corrections, and scathingly brilliant ideas.
Bonus: Not only is this pretty, it also makes a nice, soft bubbling sound. Nonetheless, I’m guessing it wasn’t a particularly welcome development.
Fascinating! (The map, not the leak.)
This is a genius idea! A few things:
1) It would be cool if you added in all of the master plans that have been done throughout the years (I believe the one from Michael Graves is missing) and there was a feature that layered/unlayered them so you can see the expansion over time like the push towards West Lot and the creation of a new axis where much of the recent construction has taken place
2) It would be great if you added in buildings that could have been but didn’t happen – for example I I believe there was supposed to be an expansion of the business school that never occurred
3) I like how you can tack on your own memory to the map – Dolores Hayden writes about place memory in her book “The Power of Place.” As a complement, have you ever considered a portal on this site or working with the Alumni Association to create a portal there where people can dump their Rice photos (rather than having to ask for them)?
Thanks for that, Melissa. Sadly it shows nothing for the Rice Aviation Grounds and even cuts off the map just south of Harris Bayou. Even though it takes the dates back to pre 1910, it doesn’t show the property owned to Bellaire. So…close…but no cigar!I’ll be talking about Rice Field (a bit) this coming Thursday night at the Museum; I hope you can make it.Michael Bludworth
Will definitely try to be there! And this is still a work in progress–I’ll see about getting the Rice Field on the map.