Rice University is officially unveiling the new home for its School of Social Sciences on Feb. 27.

An opening ceremony for the new 78,000 square-foot Patricia Lipoma Kraft ’87 and Jonathan A. Kraft Hall for Social Sciences will start at 2 p.m. with remarks from campus leaders.

The building is named for Patti and Jonathan Kraft, lead donors for the project, and houses two academic departments—sociology and economics—as well as the dean’s office, sociology lab space and the Texas Policy Lab. The Kinder Institute for Urban Research, the Religion and Public Life Program, the Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance and the Houston Education Research Consortium are also housed there, according to a news release from the university.

"The School of Social Sciences is dedicated to providing both classroom learning and real-world experiences in research and policy analysis for our students," interim Dean of Social Sciences Susan McIntosh said in the news release. "We aim to equip them for the leadership needed to address some of society’s most urgent social and political challenges, and Kraft Hall is the physical manifestation of Rice’s commitment to this endeavor."

Kraft Hall houses classrooms, conference rooms and offices over four floors. The building is the first structure on the university’s new South Axis, which will eventually extend from McNair Hall to the corner of University Boulevard and Main Street.