The tenth residential college at Rice, McMurtry College is a LEED Gold certified brick building located at the North side of campus. Being the second LEED Gold certified building in 2010, McMurtry College houses over 300 undergraduates and was founded by Burt and DeeDee McMurtry, Class of 1956. Green features of the building include:
- Smart controls that shut off room air-conditioners when the windows and doors are opened.
- Motion detectors that turn off lights in unoccupied rooms
- Natural daylight in all rooms, with energy-efficient windows to let in light without the heat.
- Thick exterior walls with two layers of brick to provide high thermal mass and reduce energy consumption.
- A green roof with low-maintenance plants that reduce energy needs for heating and cooling, slow the rate and volume of stormwater runoff, provide habitat and mitigate temperature increases caused by the urban heat island effect.
- Dual flush toilets, which allow users to select the water volume for each flush.
- Front-loading high-efficiency washing machines that reduce water, energy and detergent use.
- Low-emission interior paints and finishes for improved indoor air quality.
- Innovative use of fly ash and slag waste products in the concrete to provide attractive textures and finishes with significantly lower amounts of greenhouse gases produced during manufacturing.
- Prefabricated bathrooms that reduced the generation of on-site construction waste.
- Extensive recycling, from the provision of recycling bins to the diversion of almost 90 percent of all construction waste from the landfill.
- Covered bike racks, with space for 60 bicycles.