CU building to house technology program, teaching initiatives

By Elizabeth Mattern Clark, Camera Staff Writer
January 26, 2005

William Liggett designed his own major in artificial intelligence, using classes in the University of Colorado's Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society institute.

The 23-year-old will graduate in May but says he wants to come back to CU for his master's degree, particularly now that a cutting-edge building is under way at the heart of the Boulder campus that will centralize the school's technology programs and make it easier for students like him to study the field.

"The word is getting out about ATLAS," Liggett said. "Even for people who aren't majoring in it, they're teaching skills you can use with your job."

Crews begin work today on the $34 million ATLAS Center, which will house the multidisciplinary ATLAS institute as well as the film studies program and modern teaching-and-learning initiatives.

The building is expected to open in August 2006 northeast of the University Memorial Center. School leaders celebrated the beginning of construction with a ceremony Tuesday.

The center is designed in part to provide small-group, high-tech classroom spaces — named after former Chancellor Richard Byyny — for students across all majors. The five-story, 66,000-square-foot center will be used by an estimated 6,000 students a semester and is intended to draw the community at large, officials said.

The building will feature a glass, light-projecting tower and, inside, a super-sized video wall with rows of screens. It will also include the university's most modern and centrally located auditorium and a below-ground performing arts space.

The center will provide "much-needed facilities in the arts and technology" and will "truly be a culture-transforming building," CU President Elizabeth Hoffman said.

Jim and Becky Roser, of Boulder, contributed $2.25 million to the project. Comcast, Microsoft and the state and federal governments also donated money. The biggest allocation, though, is coming from a student fee passed last year that will raise $21 million for the building.

The fee also will pay for other projects, including a new law school building.

School officials thanked the students Tuesday for their contribution in times of state budget-cutting.

"We invested in our future. We know facilities provide the home for academia," said student tri-executive Garrett Stanton. "We're raising the standard for learning institutions everywhere."

But, he said, "students should not have to pay for these buildings."

Campus officials began planning the ATLAS Center in 1998 upon a request by Byyny for a central place focused on interdisciplinary teaching, learning and technology. It was designed quickly but then stalled because of the state's budget crisis.

Contact Camera Staff Writer Elizabeth Mattern Clark at (303) 473-1351 or clarke@dailycamera.com.

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