The RAD Center is officially open for business.

The 41,000 sq. foot, $44 million building replaces the much-loved, yet dated, underground Student Center Satellite and provides the University of Houston community with plenty of new food options and study space to aid and fuel their collegiate journey. 

The RAD Center, or the Retail, Auxiliary, and Dining Center, offers the UH community a mixture of new restaurants from UH Dining Services in Absurd Bird and Paper Lantern paired with local Houston eateries like The Burger Joint and The Taco Stand. The center also includes a market store and the Nook coffee shop. The latter being its second location on campus. 

While the RAD opened at the start of the fall semester, this month’s ribbon cutting officially opened and introduced the center to the UH community. 

“As I think back to 2018, the RAD Center was a vision of myself and good colleague, David Oliver [Senior Associate Vice Chancellor and Senior Associate Vice President for Facilities/Construction Management]. We thought about what the center of campus could look like activated with a building that wasn’t prone to flooding, that was active with great food, great conversation, great connections with students, faculty, and staff,” said Emily Messa, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor and Senior Associate Vice President of Administration and Finance. 

“We are so proud of this new facility, and so proud to be continuing to realize our vision for dining services as we head toward being a primarily residential campus.” 

The RAD Center provides the UH community with another place to grab food and drinks and one that’s more centrally located. That was a selling point for College of Social Work graduate student Lauryn John-Miller.  

“It’s nice to see all the different options that they had and that it was so close to our college,” said John-Miller. 

Some students, like Chemistry senior Alex Keyhan, remember visiting the Satellite and while Keyhan has only visited the RAD Center once, it left an impression on him. 

“It’s nicer than the Satellite,” said Keyhan. “More modern, and a better vibe to study.” 

The inviting vibe at the RAD Center is something that has captivated the attention of students, and it's one of the three pillars that Auxiliary Services, UH Dining Services, and the student-led Food Service Advisory Committee wanted to land on when developing the idea of the RAD Center. The two other pillars, an eco-friendly design and local food options, are also evident in the center. 

“It’s a very beautiful scenery,” said College of Social Work graduate student Jala Ivory. “It doesn’t feel like an enclosed area.” 

The design for the RAD was undertaken by architecture firm Perkins & Will and Houston general contractor Turner Construction. 

“From the very beginning we talked about the concept of the project to be about unleashing the senses of the university,” said Ron Stelmarski, Perking & Will Principal Designer. 

“This is the opportunity to unleash the senses. To allow people to think differently, to make new connections. And here it was all about food and art in the woodlands. So, this holistic concept of wellness, education, learning, it’s really unparalleled.” 

The RAD Center design features a mass timber structural system and vertical façade rhythms, and the aesthetics reflect the surrounding campus woodlands. The use of mass timber caught the attention of architecture undergrad Abiud Rodriguez. 

“I like that it’s mass timber. It’s a very interesting choice,” said Rodriguez, whose visited the RAD Center plenty of times this semester. “You don’t see a lot of buildings here that are built in that fashion.” 

The spaciousness of the RAD Center allows students another place to congregate with friends to eat or to study, and Ivory noticed this during her visit.  

Christopher Caldwell, a past member of the Food Service Advisory Committee, said the goal of the Food Service Advisory Committee was to have another third space, a term used in colleges and universities to signify a communal space that encourages interaction and collaboration.  

From more food options to having a third space for students, the RAD Center is proving to be a hit with the UH community.