Basic structure work is being completed. The elevator cores appear to be topped out. In the picture on the right you can see the steel that is lined up ready to be put in place on the building. Always a neat sight when a building is just getting off the ground.

None of the true building’s elements are showing but for only being three months in, quite the progress has been made. The rooms will also have a great view of the Denver skyline. Just from the ground you can see that there is a pretty unobstructed view.

This building is designed by OZ Architects as well as Boora Architects (renderings can be found by clicking the Boora link) with construction performed by G. H. Phipps. This will be home to Community College of Denver’s admissions, registration, financial aid, a testing center, the cashiers office, advising, and their own student success program. No details have been released about LEED certification but the college is being rewarded a $100,000 energy rebate for having ‘green’ elements such as chilled beams, radiant floors, and a green roof. They are expected to be completed with this project by summer session of 2013.

A lot of the exterior masonry is done as well as the glass. It contrasts nicely against the other buildings on campus due to the darker brick. There are also some vertical glass columns and setbacks that break up the facade which keeps the project exciting and adds a nice finishing touch.

One of the more impressive features of this building is the front. There is a great glass curtain wall on the bridge that connects the hotel from the learning center which also contains the 7,500 square feet of meeting space. This will benefit from some great natural light for the bridge and the lobby in the hotel.

On to the Student Success center just up the road on Auraria Parkway. Last time I took any picture of this, it was just a steel frame. Now the building is nearly complete outside and in. This creates a dramatic wall along the parkway as well with the glass curtain in the upper floors of the building. The building is nicely labeled and is much more modern looking than anything else around it.

The back side of the building is also very welcoming with the Metro State logo at the top of it. The architect of this project is RNL Design and is expected to open next month.

Just as a refresher the Student Success building is a 143,000 square foot, LEED-Gold building will house the Registrar’s office, Financial Aid, Student Academic Success, New Student Orientation and other critical support services. Full details can be found in Ken’s post here. These are very exciting developments that create a nice wall along Auraria Parkway as well as connect the urban fabric of Auraria to Downtown Denver.

Before we begin, I would like to thank Nathan Huyler of RNL, Jason Miller of Mortenson, Tiffany Nation of Mortenson, and Chad Grubl of Metro State for making this tour possible for Ken and me.

First we will start off with the courtyard. This will be a common area outside for both students and hotel guests to meet, socialize, and study. The courtyard also will be used for vehicles to get in and out but will not disturb the function of the outdoor space.

Next we will cover parking. This project has 75 structured parking spaces as you can see below. It’s a very simple system as far as getting in and out. There’s one ‘in’ ramp and one ‘out’ ramp.

The connection between the two classrooms is going to host 7,500 square feet of meeting space. This is almost like a bridge over the courtyard entrance.

They may not look like much now but these are going to be the hotel rooms. The Hotel and Hospitality Learning Center includes 150 guest rooms.

When a guest is staying in the Hotel and Hospitality Learning Center, they are going to get some great views of downtown and campus as well. You can stare at the buildings on one side, or watch a baseball game on the other.

This is the lobby of the hotel which includes a meeting area and guest services where you can check in to your room.

Over to the classrooms. The academic program here is going to offer state-of-the-art food and beverage laboratories, classrooms, and faculty offices. This also includes a kitchen, student lounge, restaurant, and even wine tasting all wrapped around in glass.

Here are a couple bonus shots of the project. On the left is a shot looking at the project form the inside, and on the right from the outside.

Last but not least, thank you once again to the crew (and the hiding ones) that allowed us to tour their project.

As far as materials go for the project, they are going to relate to the existing campus’s low-rise, high-density arrangement and clad in brick. This project is also pursuing LEED Silver.

Coming up in the next few weeks there will be more ‘Inside the Infill’ posts of more projects around such as the Ralph Carr Judicial Complex so stay tuned!

First, the Student Success Building. It appears the structure has topped out.

Workers were very busy today. There was constant activity at the site.

From a little bit of a different angle, you can see how long this building is. This will add a lot to the street-scape on Auraria Parkway.

The Hotel Learning Center was very hard to get to. It was blocked off with tall fences on all sides. I was able to zoom in a little and get this from the top of a parking garage. As you can see, there is a red tower crane up and this project is moving forward at full force.

In this bonus photo, you can see DaVita starting to break through the Lower Downtown / Central Platte Valley skyline.

When I was taking pictures on top of an Auraria parking garage, I looked around and counted 12 cranes. That’s a lot of development going on around the city, which I will be covering. Throughout the next few weeks we will be looking at some of the projects that have been regularly updated on here and also some smaller projects in Downtown’s surrounding neighborhoods that have yet to get an update.

The student success building is making significant progress. This is located at 9th and Auraria Parkway.

They have begun to build the steel skeleton for the building.

The Metro State Student Success Building is going to be a 4-story 145,000 square foot building. It is scheduled to open April 2012. Due to the recent name change of the college, the name of the building may be different upon completion.

Over at the Hotel Learning Center site, it looks like the site is being prepared for construction.

As you can see, there is a red tower crane base at the site.

The Hotel Learning Center will have 150 rooms and over 21,000 square feet of classroom space. It is expected to open September 2012.

The proposed combination hotel/academic building is planned for the corner of Auraria Parkway and 12th Street where tennis courts are currently located. Here’s the site from Google Earth:

The hotel portion will be branded as a Marriott SpringHill Suites and will contain 150 rooms, a conference facility with a 350-person capacity, and a fast-casual restaurant franchise. The hotel will be managed by Denver’s Sage Hospitality. The academic portion will include over 21,000 square feet of classrooms, laboratories, and faculty offices for Metro State’s Hospitality, Tourism & Events program.

Here are three images of the project, courtesy of RNL Design:

View of the northeastern side. The intersection in the foreground is eastbound Auraria Parkway (wide street in front) and 12th Street (narrow street heading off to the left):

View of the southeastern side facing the athletic fields and Lawrence Street:

Internal courtyard:

If all goes as planned, the facility will open September 2012.

The new, 4-story, 145,000 square foot structure will be built at the corner of 9th Street and Auraria Parkway, and will represent the first building in the newly designated Metropolitan State College of Denver “neighborhood” within the larger Auraria Higher Education campus. Here’s a post from about a year ago showing the building’s site and its place within what will become the Metro State quad.

Metro State’s Student Success Building will serve as the home for the college’s new “one-stop-shop” registration center, the First Year Student Success Program, the Community Action Theater, the Center for Innovation, and other critical support, administrative, and student-support services. The $62 million project is being financed through federal stimulus subsidized bonds, backed by a special assessment approved by Metro State students in the Spring 2009.

The new building was designed by RNL Design of Denver. Here are the latest (and final, I believe) renderings of the new building. View is from the 9th Street and Auraria Parkway intersection looking southwest:

The new Student Success Building is scheduled to open April 2012.

Coming soon to DenverInfill… details on Metro State’s new Hospitality Learning Center, scheduled for groundbreaking February 2011.

First, an aerial view looking north. Auraria Parkway is at the top and 9th Street is on the right. The L-shaped building encloses a pedestrian plaza (as always, click to enlarge):

View from the plaza:

View from across Auraria Parkway looking east:

View from across Auraria Parkway looking west:

View from 9th Street:

View from plaza entry:

The Metro Student Success building will be approximately 145,000 square feet in size and will hold the college’s Registrar’s office, Financial Aid, Student Academic Success, New Student Orientation and other critical support services. The $62 million project is being financed through federal stimulus subsidized bonds, backed by a special assessment approved by Metro State students Spring 2009. The project is aiming for LEED Gold certification.

Construction of the Metro State Student Success Building is slated to begin as early as December of this year with a planned opening of April 2012.

Known as the Community College of Denver Student Learning and Success Building, the proposed structure at Champa and Speer would provide CCD with significant new classroom space and room for other academic and student programs that the institution is sorely lacking.  CCD’s enrollment has skyrocketed to over 12,000 students, yet it continues to occupy just 10 classrooms in Auraria’s South Classroom Building. The institution is so pressed for space that it regularly uses theaters in the Starz FilmCenter at the Tivoli for classrooms and has even held classes outdoors.

The new project would join the list of a new generation of buildings for the Downtown campus. In 2005, the new Metro State Parking Facility at the corner of 9th and Auraria Parkway was completed. Then just late last year, the new Auraria Science Building became the first new Auraria building to be located right up against Speer Boulevard to provide a strong urban form along the campus edge with Downtown. Metro State has two proposed buildings in the works:  the Metro State Student Success Building, a four-story, 143,000 SF structure slated for the other corner of 9th and Auraria Parkway that should hopefully break ground late 2010; and Metro’s Hotel Learning Center, an 11-story hotel/academic building for the college’s hospitality and tourism program that should start construction in 2011 at the corner of Speer and Auraria Parkway.

CCD’s new structure would occupy a highly visible site at Speer and Champa, just across Speer from the Colorado Convention Center. Currently, the triangular site is a surface parking lot. Here’s a bird’s eye view of the proposed location from Bing Maps:

The proposed building would range from five to seven stories in height and would cost approximately $50 million. The Community College of Denver would cover approximately one-half to three-quarters of the cost, with the balance covered by selling bonds that would be paid back with a special fee tacked on to CCD tuition for the next 15-25 years. CCD students will vote next week (April 12-16) on the fee increase for the project. If it passes, the new building could break ground in 2011 and be completed by 2013.

The project architect is Anderson Mason Dale, the same firm that designed the Auraria Science Building. Here are some preliminary images of the project:

From 13th and Champa (left) and St. Francis Way and 10th on the campus (right):

From Speer and Kalamath/Champa (left) and from near Speer and Stout by the Convention Center (right):

I captured these images from the video below, produced by CCD and available on their home page. The video does an exceptional job of making the case for the new building plus, in addition to the exterior shots above, the video also includes a number of nice renderings of the some of the interior spaces. I may be receiving higher quality versions of these images from CCD. If I do, I’ll swap these out for the better ones.

More news after the student referendum April 12-16. If this project happens, it will represent another important step in the transformation of the Auraria campus to a more urban complement to Downtown Denver… not to mention a critical improvement to the quality of CCD students’ education.