Editors: A drawing of the ATLAS Center building is attached and other images are available by calling Kevin Lee, (303) 492-1874 or Jeannine Malmsbury, (303) 492-3115.
A "multimedia groundbreaking" for CU-Boulder's new $34 million ATLAS Center is set for Jan. 25 on the site of the former Hunter Science Building, northeast of the University Memorial Center at the center of the Boulder campus.
The groundbreaking begins at 12:30 p.m. and is open to the public.
The 66,000 gross square foot ATLAS Center will feature a beacon-like lighted tower situated on the northeast corner of the building as its most prominent architectural feature. Construction of the five-floor building will begin in February 2005. The center is scheduled to be open for classes in the fall of 2006.
"The ATLAS Center will serve as the technology beacon for the CU-Boulder campus," said Bobby Schnabel, vice provost for Academic and Campus Technology and faculty director of ATLAS. "We look forward to the teaching and learning facilities that it will offer to the more than 6,000 students from a multitude of disciplines who will take courses in this center each semester," Schnabel said.
The center, with three floors above ground and two below, will house modern technology enhanced teaching, learning and research facilities for students, faculty and community members, including:
*a two-story "black-box" performance studio with video and audio control rooms, dressing rooms and a smaller production studio
*one 150-student auditorium and one 75-student film screening room for instruction and for campus and community events
*two 40-student and two 25-student computer classrooms
*one 25-student teaching demonstration room
*11 student group design and group project spaces
*a main floor exhibition lobby, featuring a video wall, media projection and student project kiosks, open to the public
*and the Post-Modem Café, open to the public
The center also will house the ATLAS Institute including its 230-student Technology, Arts and Media program and its Evaluation and Research Group; the core offices of the National Center for Women and Information Technology; faculty/staff offices for the department of film studies; a student computing commons, editing rooms and production spaces; and the Faculty Teaching Excellence Program and Graduate Teacher Program.
The ATLAS Center will be similar in size to the Eaton Humanities and Math buildings on the Boulder campus. It is only the third academic building to be built in the past five years at CU-Boulder. The Eaton Humanities Building was built in 1999 and the groundbreaking for the new Wolf Law Building took place on Nov. 12.
Of the building's $34 million estimated cost, $1.6 million will be provided by the state of Colorado, $6.5 million has been raised from private donations and federal funds and about $21 million will be funded by newly approved student fees. An additional $5 million still must be raised from private sources.
The student fees that made the construction possible will begin in fall 2006 and will increase from $100 a year to $400 a year, over a four-year period. The new fee will be assessed for 20 years and serves as a replacement to state funding. It will fund other projects on campus including the law school.
Jim and Becky Roser of Boulder have made a $2.25 million co-naming gift for the ATLAS Center, and Comcast has made the second largest private gift, a $1 million donation.
The groundbreaking will feature President Betsy Hoffman, Provost Phil DiStefano, Jim Roser, a student leader and Schnabel, serving as master of ceremonies. The multimedia groundbreaking will be shown on video screens and will include about 60 people with "virtual shovels" from the campus and community. The video will be narrated live by Professor Diane Sieber, co-director of ATLAS.
The ceremony will be preceded and followed by a video display of ATLAS student projects and broadcasting of student-produced music. Hot drinks and donut holes will be available outside for attendees.
ATLAS, the Alliance for Teaching, Learning and Society, is a campuswide institute that integrates information technology with multidisciplinary curricular, research and outreach programs. ATLAS' vision is to provide information technology for all students, not just those in technology fields, as well as to diverse communities at the university and K-12 levels.