Shop Talk: Dancers in Colorado, Construction Boom in New Jersey

Antoine Predock designed Colorado College’s new arts center. (Photo by Gerry Salinas)

Soaring space: Aerial dancers presented three performances over the weekend at the official opening of Colorado College’s new Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center, designed by Antoine Predock. The dancers are members of a troupe, Project Bandaloop, that the college says is “inspired by the possibilities of climbing and rappelling,” and that creates site-specific works. In this case, the site was the college’s $33.4-million, 72,400-square-foot building, which has a 450-seat main auditorium, a 100-seat screening room, and a 90-seat studio, among other facilities. The dancers performed both inside and out.

Gordon College has opened a new science building. (Gordon College image)

Building for science: Phase one of Gordon College’s new Ken Olsen Science Center opened late last month — without high-flying dancers, but with prayers nonetheless. The Christian college’s 47,000-square-foot building, designed by Payette, cost $21-million and houses biology and chemistry labs, classrooms, faculty offices, a 400-seat auditorium, and an 80-seat lecture hall. Phase two is to bring the size of the complex to 83,000 square feet, adding additional labs, offices, classrooms, math and physics libraries, and a greenhouse.

Construction boom: Bad as the economic situation may be, New Jersey colleges are continuing a dorm-construction boom, according to The Star-Ledger, of Newark. The newspaper ties the trend to “burgeoning enrollment of Baby Boomer kids — many with a taste for modern amenities,” and says campus housing supplies are so badly strained that “hundreds of students are living in hotels and hundreds more are tripled-up in rooms due to bed shortages.” Among the institutions affected are Montclair State University, Ramapo College, and Richard Stockton State College of New Jersey.