Shop Talk: 2 Buildings for Business; a Campus for an Honors College

The U. of Colorado at Boulder renovated the home of its business school (Photograph by Warren Patterson)

Better business building in Boulder: The 1970 Koelbel Building, home of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has reopened after a $38-million makeover that added 65,000 square feet of space to what was originally a 100,000-square-foot structure. The renovation, by ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge, added classroom space, project rooms for student teams, and an information commons.

Honors college in Phoenix: Arizona State University and a development partner, American Campus Communities, have begun construction of an eight-acre honors-college campus that will house 1,700 students, according to a university news release. The $120-million project, due to open in 2009 on the southeast corner of the university’s main campus in Tempe, is intended to combine “the caring and advocacy of a small, residential four-year college with the vast resources of a large Pac-10 research university,” the university says. The campus, designed with sustainability in mind, will have classrooms, a computer lab, a dining hall, a fitness center, outside activity courts, and an amphitheater.

Grand opening in Houston: The University of Houston’s downtown campus will formally unveil its new College of Business building next week. The four-story, 132,000-square-foot building (right), designed by Pierce Goodwin Alexander & Linville, houses lecture halls, classrooms, computer labs, and a parking garage. It cost $35-million.