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DU is significantly slowing down construction of new buildings and plans to demolish the east wing of Boettcher Hall as late as this fall, according to Mark Rodgers, university architect.
Instead of an increase of three new buildings per year, DU’s campus redevelopment will drop to one new building every three years, Rodgers said.
More than half of campus is less than 15 years old.
DU will also demolish Boettcher East, which was built in the 1950s, because it absorbs too much water.
“The east wing is in need of such extensive repairs and is the part of the building least efficiently used,” Rodgers said. “Instead of trying to continue to use it the way it is, we’re going to demolish that end of the building.”
That space will turn into a new campus green with eventual plans for a new School of Engineering down the street.
There will also be renovations on the Boettcher Auditorium so that it can accommodate three classes at once, rather than one mostly-empty room, Rodgers said.
The project is being readied for a bid. All future construction depends on the ability to raise funds for buildings.
As DU tackles the outskirts of campus, there are also talks of eventually expanding the block that spans from Evans Avenue to Asbury Avenue and from High Street to Race Street.
Current work on Ruffatto Hall, on the corner of Race Street and Evans Avenue, is designed to incorporate redevelopment of that from the current parking lots and houses.
“It’s clear we have yet to have an opportunity to approach a more campus-like layout, as opposed to this block we happen to own,” Rodgers said.
With plans to rebuild the School of Engineering, Rodgers thinks this will improve the general ‘feel’ of the south side of campus – but this is still in the fundraising stage.
“The School of Engineering is the project that allows us to make south of Iliff Avenue feel much more like the part of the university campus, as opposed to bits of pieces of campus and bits of pieces apartments,” he said.
A major challenge with these projects, however, is funding, Rodgers said.
“It’s been a more challenging economic client,” Rodgers said. “We’re trying to decide when to commence which parts of it [construction] to achieve all the things we want to achieve.”
The ideal zone for the undergraduate circle of campus, Rodgers said, would encompass the area from Olin Hall to the area of Nelson and Nagel residence halls, to Sturm and then back to the Daniels College of Business.
Buildings outside of the zone include the mass communications building, John Greene Hall, the physics building and the Seeley G. Mudd science building.
“You want a vibrant part of campus, but there’s this piece on the far side,” Rodgers said. “I know it’s on the chancellor’s mind.”
However, there are no plans at the present to tackle the far south end of campus, Rodgers said.
Also, Penrose Library and Driscoll Student Center were previously slated for remodel, but they are on hold because of a shortage of funds.
