Under the leadership of Tony Frank, the decade between 2009 and 2019 witnessed an amazing physical transformation of the Colorado State University campus – a total of 44 projects were completed. New construction, revitalizations, remodels, updates, expansions and additions have created spaces and places graduates from the Class of 2008 might not recognize, while maintaining the essential spirit and scale of the campus that CSU alumni hold near and dear.
All of the projects have been designed with energy efficiency and sustainability in mind; at the end of Spring Semester 2019, CSU counts more than 30 buildings either LEED certified or awarded for their eco-conscious design and implementation. This year also marked the 10th anniversary of the installation of the first solar array on campus, as CSU leads the way in renewable energy as well.
This slide show, with images by CSU photographers, captures just a few of the significant projects that are part of this campus transformation. To see them all, visit building.colostate.edu.
Academic Village opened in 2009 as a residential learning community including the University Honors Program. Other RLCs on campus serve students majoring in the arts, engineering, natural sciences, health and exercise science, and natural resources sustainability.
The Computer Science Building opened in 2009 offering the entire CSU community access to a 24-hour computer and dual-use laboratory as well as a home for one of the fastest-growing departments on campus.
The 2010 addition of Rockwell Hall West was funded in part by a facility fee CSU students voted to impose on themselves. The new building added not just classroom, study and meeting spaces, but also up-to-the-minute technology for College of Business students.
The $10 per credit student facility fee also helped fund the Behavioral Sciences Building, which opened in 2010. It was designed to bring departments such as psychology and human development and family studies together to encourage interdisciplinary study and research with the latest technology on hand.
The Research Innovation Center opened on the Foothills Campus west of the main CSU campus in 2010 to provide a hub for university scientists and researcher to partner with businesses to develop products to treat and diagnose infectious diseases. It was built to the highest standards to support such research and vaccine production.
The expansion of the CSU Student Recreation Center in 2012 has won awards not just for design but for energy efficiency and sustainability. It is open extended hours to serve the needs of students, faculty and staff and features an aquatic center and massage therapy services as well as an indoor climbing wall and outdoor sand volleyball courts.
The Suzanne and Walter Scott, Jr. Scott Bioengineering Building held its grand opening at the beginning of the September flood of 2013. It provides lab and office space for faculty working in a wide range of disciplines within the Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering, and is designed to promote the collaboration central to the School of Biomedical Engineering.
The City of Fort Collins’ first municipal power plant completed its transformation to the Powerhouse Energy Campus in 2014. CSU first occupied the disused space in the early 2000s when the Engines and Energy Conversion Lab began exploring the possibilities of solving global problems related to pollution from internal combustion engines. It is now the center of the university’s wide spectrum of energy research.
After 50 years of giving CSU students a place to eat, study, relax, buy (and sell back) textbooks, and just hang out, Lory Student Center underwent a significant Revitalization that was completed in 2014. In addition to needed structural upgrades, the ballroom now offers a breathtaking panoramic view of the mountains, as well as the largest meeting space in Northern Colorado.
The Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising opened its new building in January 2015, just east of the University Center for the Arts. It houses exhibitions that rotate each semester and serves as a learning lab for students in the Department of Design and Merchandising.
Until 2015, the university greenhouses were housed in World War II vintage quonset huts. Today, the Horticulture Center on Centre Avenue provides a modern space for learning and research that has already resulted in a major breakthrough for a significant local industry: how to grow hops year-round.
The Chemistry Research Building was added to the Science Mall at CSU in 2017. The building offers hood-intensive lab space, integrating collaborative research across multiple areas of chemistry, where faculty and students can work side by side to tackle global challenges.
The Department of Biology celebrated a homecoming to a home it never had before when the new Biology Building opened in 2017. For the first time, the entire department – labs, classrooms and offices – are under one roof, in a space with innovate design and museum-exhibit decor.
The CSU Health and Medical Center opened in 2017, and provides not only a spacious, modern facility to meet the physical and mental health care needs of CSU students, but a much-needed center for community care located conveniently in the middle of Fort Collins through a number of medical partnerships.
After a hiatus of nearly 50 years, football returned to the CSU campus with the 2017 opening of Canvas Stadium. In addition to Sonny Lubick Field, the stadium includes the Anderson Athletic Education Center to support student athletes in their studies, meeting spaces available to the Fort Collins as well as campus community, and the New Belgium Porch, open on summer afternoons as well as on game days.
Canvas Stadium also houses the Iris and Michael Smith Alumni Center as well as the Collaborative for Student Achievement academic support services, classrooms, and general meeting space. A remarkable addition to the alumni center is the Old Main Bell, lost for nearly 100 years. To celebrate its nearly miraculous return, the Alumni Association has reinstated the tradition of members of the Ram Family ringing it to celebrate football victories.
The Michael Smith Natural Resources Building, opened in 2017, was only a portion of a generous donation from alumnus Michael Smith. His gift also funded scholarships in the colleges of Business and Natural Sciences as well as the new alumni center at Canvas Stadium.
The buildings keep opening even as President Frank is set to become Chancellor Frank with the opening earlier this year of the Nancy Richardson Design Center. An amazing space dedicated to cross-pollination of ideas, the center is open to students across campus and supports the new Certificate in Design Thinking.
The latest addition to CSU’s South Campus, on Drake Road, is the C. Wayne McIlwraith Translational Medicine Institute, which held its grand opening in May 2019. The facility is a place for researchers and clinicians to come together to explore the interface between animal and human medicine, for the benefit of all species.
