As you approach Thomas Phifer and Partners’ house in upstate New York, the long, steep climb up a winding country road ends not with a dramatic structure, nor a sweeping panorama; its denouement is merely a prelude to the multifaceted spatial sequence to come.

You can almost hear the “Pomp and Circumstance March” as you stroll Rice University’s bucolic, 285-acre campus nestled in the heart of Houston, shielded from the hubbub of the city’s six-lane freeways and endless strip development.