DU leads way as universities drastically change landscape
Denvermetro universities are launching construction projects this summer aimed at alleviating growing enrollment, but nothing is as ambitious as the farreaching changes planned for the University of Denver.
While the University of Colorado Denver and Regis University are adding housing, DU is not only building a new $143 million firstyear dorm. The 11,600enrollment, private university is also plowing ahead with a “radical transformation” of the campus and student experience, university officials said.
Those plans include turning a sixacre parcel on the north side the 125acre campus into a college townenvironment with a vibrant mix of retail, restaurants and office space combined with affordable and market rate housing. The university even plans to throw a hotel into the mix.
The three new buildings — a 500bed dorm; a community commons that includes classrooms and program space; and a career center for student mentorships — will open in the fall of 2020. The other, even bigger changes will come over the next decade or so after the university forges public/ private partnerships with devel
opers, said DU chancellor Rebecca Chopp.
The goal is to make the DU campus more inviting to neighbors who may want to attend a concert or eat a meal there while enticing students to stay on campus both day and night, Chopp said.
“We are just opening up the university for a variety of possibilities for us and our neighbors,” she said. “We’ve known for a long time that people over the age of 55 love to live by campuses and partake in a school’s music and cultural events. And if we can get more students to stay on campus, that will reduce traffic in the local neighborhoods and just add to the campus experience.”
DU’s Ritchie Center already draws hundreds of thousands to campus for sports, while the Newman Center attracts similar numbers to performing arts events, Chopp said. “These are already assets to the community, and adding more retail and more things to do at DU will help not only the school more but the community as well,” she said.
Adding more on-campus housing options will help graduate students who chronically struggle to find affordable homes and apartments, she said.
Chopp wants DU to emulate other universities that went into their communities to expand services and influence. Atlanta’s Emory University — where Chopp served as provost –– is a major economic engine that produces a $9.1 billion economic impact and employs 30,000 workers in the Atlanta area.
Denver City Councilman Paul Kashmann, who represents the DU area, cheers the university’s efforts to be a community partner and to help relieve the housing crunch.
“I’m excited that chancellor Chopp wants to blur the lines and turn the university more outward and face the community,” Kashmann said. “And the new dorm they are building will be a huge help. For years, we’ve had so many of those kids out in the community living in homes built for two or three people but housing five or six students.”
Kashmann said he doesn’t see the university trying to elbow out other businesses by inviting more retail and restaurants on campus. “I do think they are trying to broaden their offerings, and instead of students going to Cherry Creek or downtown, they will stay close to campus,” he said. “Of course, the market economy is going to have a lot to say about this as well.”
Donivan Cano, the general manager for the Pioneer Bar, said the neighborhoods around DU are already saturated with bars and restaurants, and the university’s plans to add more may end up putting some out of business. “But I think we have pretty good thing going here,” Cano said. “I think we will be fine.”
Other metro universities are taking on expansion projects as well.
University of Colorado Denver plans to build a dorm on its portion of the Auraria campus for its firstyear students and to find someone to develop a three-acre parcel — with a possible dining option — next to the 700-bed Campus Village Apartments, near East Colfax Avenue and Auraria Parkway.
Regis University, meanwhile, has $13.8 million in construction projects on tap for this year, including $9 million to remodel of its student center and $1.7 million to remodel its fieldhouse. Construction also has begun on the five-story Vincent J. Boryla Apartments, managed by Regis University and located a block south of the university. It will offer one-,two-, three-and four-bedroom units.
Boryla, who died in 2016 at age 89, was a professional basketball player, coach, business executive and longtime supporter of Father Woody’s Service Projects at Regis.