Good news! If you haven’t already heard, the state announced yesterday that they had found a way to restore funding for the Auraria Science Building project. I’m glad the drama lasted only a few days. For all of the details, here are articles about the new funding plan from the News and the Post.
Also, here are some images from John Rebchook’s blog from last week:
Auraria Science Building site:
Speer Boulevard rendering:
South elevation rendering:
Northwest elevation rendering:
I'm happy to hear our very capable state leadership was willing to get creative and push through the funding for this project and others. This is how it's supposed to work. The science building will be a nice addition to that section of Speer.
Heh, I guess I was a bit harsh to the state there. Congrats to them!
Huh. There really is no matching theme to the buildings on the Auraria campus, are there?
I guess it would take an awful lot of time and investment to bring them to the same style; the replacement for a building there would be like, what – 65 years? Heck, we'll have universities on the moon by then. (maybe)
Might I suggest that the campus get some sort of theme by planting lots and lots and lots of trees. Fast-growing but still sturdy trees like red oak, catalpas, and horse chestnuts. It would help it look more university-campussy. Like the schools in New England.
Thank you State of Colorado, you
did the right thing !
Gotta respond to Matt Pizzuti, as a graduate of UCD. There is a common architectural vocabulary among the Auraria buildings, and every architect who has contributed to the campus since it was built has pulled from the same set of elements, so that the campus would appear unified and coherent. Yes, it is very different from CU's Rocky Mountain Mediterranean look, but it's entirely suited to its urban setting. The oversized brown bricks, horizontal windows, etc., unify the Auraria campus nicely–these elements have even been used on the parking garages. And as for trees: the campus opened in the 1970s without much in the way of landscaping (it also had Larimer and Lawrence running right through it, making it really hard to go between classes easily), but since then AHEC has implemented a very attractive landscape design. This being dry Colorado, it will start looking collegiate around 2050.