University of Denver Breaks Ground for the Burwell Center for Career Achievement

DENVER, CO – In June, the University of Denver (DU) celebrated the groundbreaking of its new Burwell Center for Career Achievement. Designed by  Lake|Flato Architects, along with Denver-based design partner Shears Adkins Rockmore (SA+R), and in collaboration with Landscape Architect Didier Design Studio, the milestone marks an important step toward transforming the campus into a gathering place for the extended DU community.

Burwell Center

Situated at a key nexus between the campus's traditional core and its growing urban edge, the new 23,000-square-foot Burwell Center for Career Achievement will be a campus hub focused on student career development, employer engagement, and alumni activities. A tower stair will serve as a beacon and an executive lounge will provide views to the campus, the adjacent city core, and the nearby Rocky Mountains, connecting visitors to the neighboring landscape. Designed as a LEED Platinum building, the Center is anticipated to use 70 percent less energy than comparable university buildings.

The building and its surrounding site are focused on creating "sticky spaces," areas that encourage users to linger and interact. The ground floor is designed to connect with the surrounding landscape, linking the Center to DU's academic core and its future campus additions. As one moves up through the building, interactions gradually become more intentional and focused. The ground floor encourages serendipitous encounters around the sticky spaces, whereas the upper floors are focused on coaching, interviews, and career advising.

A Fall 2020 opening is planned.

Featured

  • Indiana University Launches Capital Campus in D.C.

    Indiana University recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new IU Capital Campus in Washington, D.C., according to university news. The eight-story facility will provide a central hub for the university’s existing programs and business operations based in D.C., uniting them under one roof and providing the opportunity to expand.

  • Classical building columns display digital data streams

    The Campus Nervous System: Why Facilities Risk Is Now a Leadership Issue in Higher Education

    Facility performance now intersects with safety, compliance, on-campus experience, institutional reputation, and financial resilience. That places it firmly on the leadership agenda.

  • California High School Opens New Classroom Building for 7th-, 8th-Graders

    Santa Rosa City Schools in Santa Rosa, Calif., recently announced the completion of a new classroom building for Piner High School. As the campus transitions to a Junior/Senior High School, the facility will play home to the school’s new population of seventh- and eighth-grade students.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.