DENVER—The University of Denver has officially taken possession of a trio of new structures at the campus located in the Colorado capital city. The three buildings were built in phases during the covid-19 pandemic, when instructors and students were largely remote.

The new buildings entail a career center, community commons and first-year residence hall. The buildings were designed, respectively, by Lake|Flato of San Antonio, Moore Rubel Yudell of Santa Monica, California, and Anderson Mason Dale Architects of Denver.

The various architectural teams met the challenge of ensuring the new buildings would fit into the campus aesthetic of Richardsonian construction, dating back to when the school’s initial buildings were first built in the late-19th century.

“For the Community Commons, our team worked closely with DU to build inclusive and welcoming environments that promote cultural awareness and empathy as part of daily life and create a sense of belonging,” Jeanne Chen, principal with Moore Ruble Yudell, said in an email.

“Our built environments have the potential to contribute to a more equitable and interconnected society in the ways we engage each other and the kinds of spaces we create.”

Added Erin Hillhouse, principal with Anderson Mason Dale Architects, who designed the Design new first-year residence hall: “A recent national study found that 64% of college students struggle with feelings of loneliness and isolation. These feelings can contribute to drop-out rates, which are especially high for first-generation students, one-quarter of whom leave college after their first year.

“The primary challenge of the Dimond Family Residential Village was to help residents form connections with one another to counteract these trends.”

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DENVER — The University of Denver (DU) held a groundbreaking ceremony on March 26, beginning the construction on a residence hall designed to house 500 first-year students.

The 130,000-square-foot, five-story building is anticipated to cost $55.5 million and scheduled to open in fall 2020.

According to the university’s website, a key principle of the design is the notion of nested scales of community, focused on the notion of developing a sense of belonging among our students.

The design fosters community with pods of approximately 24 students, a “tree canopy” programming space for a hall of 500 students, and an embracing outdoor gathering space for the entire first year entering class of 1500 students.

This allows co-curricular initiatives to thrive and for meaningful interactions, dialogues, and relationships to be fostered between DU students.

The building is targeting LEED Silver Certification under LEED V4, projected to achieve 27 percent summer peak energy savings over code minimum.

Key sustainability strategies include a stand-alone highly efficient heating/cooling plant, a system of 4-pipe fan coil units for room conditioning and a rooftop photovoltaic panel array for energy production.

The residence hall will also include space for some campus programs alongside the residential units.

The residence hall will be named the Dimond Family Residential Village, following a $5 million gift to the university from the Dimond Family Foundation, the vehicle for the philanthropy of Navin and Rita Dimond, as well as their two daughters. Navin Dimond is the president and CEO of Denver-based hotelier Stonebridge Cos., which he founded in 1991, as reported by the BusinessDen.

The University of Denver requires first- and second-year students to live on campus, but the college stated in a press release that it is seeing higher demand for on-campus housing from upper-level students, and that the new freshmen dorm will create more openings for those students.

Saunders Construction is the general contractor on the project with Anderson Mason Dale Architects and Moore Ruble Yudell as the architecture firms.

The residence hall is one of three new buildings DU plans to open in fall 2020, including the Community Commons, which will features both classrooms and a dining hall, and the Pioneer Career Achievement Center, which will incorporate career planning and alumni offices.

Reports from the BusinessDen and the University of Denver contributed to this story.

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The first step is the construction of three new buildings this summer — the Community Commons, First-Year Residence Hall and Pioneer Career Achievement Center and Alumni Center — that aim to transform the student experience upon their opening in fall of 2020. This initial project is reportedly a $143 million undertaking, with the commons the most costly of the elements.

“In the past 20 years, the University of Denver has invested about $1 billion in facilities and infrastructure,” Chopp said. “We are now investing another $143 million in three student-centered buildings. The Denver Advantage Campus Framework Plan will guide us for the next 20 years as we establish a great college town in the heart of the city — with more retail, affordable and market rate housing, dining options and more sustainable transportation solutions. To do that, we’ll need to continue to engage the campus and our neighbors as we go forward.”

With the DACFP, DU envisions its campus’ future as a vibrant college town in the heart of the larger overall city. The goal is a makeover of its 125-acre campus into a more active community, with more retail, affordable housing and restaurant options, and even the potential development of a hotel on the north side of campus. The university hopes to blur its campus boundaries while being more visitor-friendly to the surrounding neighborhoods and also working with the city of Denver on a number of sustainable transportation alternatives.

The new residence hall will be paid for by room and board charges, while the Community Commons and Career Achievement Center will be covered, at least in part, by philanthropy and partnerships. The university also announced that upon the opening of the buildings in 2020, every undergraduate and graduate student will pay a new fee of $6.50 per credit hour in an effort to help fund the Commons.

Last month, the university launched its pilot bike-share program with 200 bikes, promoting sustainable transportation choices. This July, the university will also launch a pilot program with Chariot Shuttles, which will provide a shuttle service to the DU community with stops at the light rail plus other designated route stops, with plans to hopefully grow the service to neighboring communities in the near future.

While all these changes are exciting for DU, there has been concern over increased traffic.  With that in mind, the university announced that it received approval on adding new pedestrian crosswalks along Evans Avenue – a street that sees more than 12,000 pedestrians daily on average.

While construction begins on three buildings this summer, other projects described in the plan may take up to 20 years to be fully realized.

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