The Metropolitan State University of Denver‘s new state-of-the-art Aerospace and Engineering Sciences Building is open! Officially dedicated this summer, over half of the 142,000-square foot facility consists of specialized laboratories to help train future workers in metro Denver’s booming aerospace economy. Funding the $60 million building was a joint effort by MSU Denver, the State of Colorado, and various private aerospace companies including Lockheed Martin, which made a $1 million gift to support the facility and its mission.
To learn more about MSU’s new Aerospace and Engineering Sciences Building and to see the interior, check out this video, courtesy of MSU Denver:
Let’s tour the exterior of this handsome structure designed by Anderson Mason Dale Architects, starting with the 7th Street side, which features a glass atrium and reading room with a half-scale model of NASA’s Orion spacecraft suspended from the ceiling.
On the Auraria Parkway side, the new Aerospace Engineering and Sciences Building not only adds an urban edge to the parkway, but it also sits nicely next to its neighbor, MSU Denver’s Student Success Building. Where the Student Success Building cantilevers on its upper floors, the Aerospace Engineering and Sciences Building steps back on its upper floors, suggesting the two buildings could fit together like puzzle pieces.
From the interior of the Auraria campus, the new building sits at the corner of the MSU Denver neighborhood green:
We’ve saved the best photos for last! Thanks to my blog partner and expert photographer Ryan Dravitz, these evening images show MSU Denver’s new Aerospace and Engineering Sciences Building glowing in the twilight:
Well done, MSU Denver!
So many updates lately! Thank you for all your hard work!!!!
What was the original purpose of the spacecraft mockup? An old boilderplate model or testing? A tech mockup? Mere fiberglass that exists for this final purpose?
Answered own question:
A 50 percent scale model of NASA’s Orion spacecraft hangs above the reading room in the glass-walled west facing atrium for all to see as they drive by on the Auraria Parkway. The model was manufactured by MSU Denver students and their faculty advisors, under the guidance and support of Lockheed Martin engineers, using 3-D printing techniques. And according to the director of MSU Denver’s Advanced Manufacturing Sciences Institute, Robert Park, Ph.D., it’s not just there to look cool.
“It’s meant to remind students of what they can achieve inside this building by working collaboratively,” he said.
http://insider.msudenver.edu/we-have-liftoff/