HCU Moody Library Renovation
This renovation reimagines the library as a dynamic hub for learning, connection, and adaptability. As education and research shift away from traditional models, new service paradigms are emerging to meet the evolving needs of students and universities. The library’s value is no longer measured solely by its books and collections, but by its ability to bend and flex with changing institutional priorities. By reshaping the relationship between information, technology, and people, the design positions the library to thrive amid the cultural, social, and economic changes shaping higher education.
Location
Houston, Texas
Design Team
Joe Rivers and Kevin Barden
Typology
Commercial
Date
2025
Interior Design
Studio Heineman
Process
Explore
Albert Cabin
Albert, Texas
Residential
Stepping through the stone wall portal marks a threshold from city life to the quiet rhythms of the Texas Hill Country. The cabin’s warm wood interiors and expansive glazing open to the surrounding oaks and sky. In the mornings, the southeast-facing bath welcomes the first light; in the evenings, the southwest-facing bedroom frames sunsets and starlit skies.
Kevin Barden
Architect
Art and Design
In this episode, our resident architect Joe Rivers sits down with our other resident architect Kevin Barden from Minnetonka, Minnesota. Kevin and Joe first met at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, over a decade ago. Since then, Kevin's journey in architecture has taken him many places, including Chur, Switzerland where he studied and worked for two and half years, and Houston, Texas where Rivers Barden Architects laid its roots. Joe sat down with Kevin to discuss his beginning in architecture, his influences, and his mantra for living a fulfilled life.
Talking About Wood (Reden Über Holz)
Translation: Kevin Barden
Writing
In 1985, Swiss architects Michael Alder, Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, and Peter Zumthor sat down with Archithese to discuss building with wood; the continued traditions of its use as well as the possibility of developing new traditions. All four architects articulate a specific interest of the material and offer a critical eye to the others’ work. While Alder is concerned with the aesthetics of wood, Zumthor is attentive to the material from a cabinetmaker’s…