Back in December 2009, I blogged about the new Student Success Building planned by the Metropolitan State College of Denver for the corner of 9th Street and Auraria Parkway on the Auraria Campus. At that time, only a few massing-model type renderings were available. Today I’m happy to publish our first look at the proposed design by architecture firm RNL Design and Saunders Construction. These images came from a schematic design submittal from April, so while they may not represent the building’s final design, they give us a good idea of the general look of the proposed structure.

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):

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View from the plaza:

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View from across Auraria Parkway looking east:

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View from across Auraria Parkway looking west:

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View from 9th Street:

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View from plaza entry:

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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.