Photo by: Jill Hamilton

DU is putting $1.8 million into restoring the old Beta fraternity house, which will soon host the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS), to meet DU standards for academic buildings.

The house is located on Greek Row near the Sturm College of Law.

The building will not receive a full copper roof like many around campus, but will have Tamko shingles with copper trimming like the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house to the north.

“The building will be transformed from a fraternity house to an academic building,” said the university architect Mark Rodgers.

The Beta Theta Pi Fraternity lost the house when they could no longer pay for the upkeep and pay the lease payments.

The house will now be occupied by IAALS, which is currently borrowing office space in the Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality Management (KSHM) building.

“This is a space where we can operate on our own, bring stakeholders from around the country, host events, grow our staff size and encourage people to come do work in our space,” said Dan Drayer, director of marketing communications for IAALS .

Talks of renovating the house have been ongoing since 2000 by both the university administration and the university architect’s office.

They wanted to give Beta Theta Pi time to bring the house up to code and university standards,  but the fraternity was unable to raise the money.

The house is a nearly century-old building founded by the Beta fraternity in the early 1920s.

DU’s architect’s office said the school usually justifies copper roofs because they last nearly forever, require no maintenance, keep a building structurally sound and create an overall aesthetically pleasing look.

However, it opted not to use copper-finished roofs with this project.

“We saved money by using only copper trim,” said Rodgers. “If you start from the premise that the university wants to build something that will last for centuries, putting a good roof is the best way of insuring the building will last, and the copper roof is what you end up with.”

Of the nearly $2 million price tag on the renovation, the largest portion of the cost will be the labor.

The construction on the building will be finished mid-November, according to Rodgers. Drayer said IAALS will move into the building in mid-November as well.