The Eaton Humanities building, completed in 1999, follows CU's Tuscan-inspired architectural style. (CU Independent/Patrick Ghidossi)
A Little Taste of Italy
CU initially was not intended to look the way it does now.
Bill Deno, campus architect emeritus, writes in Body and Soul, his book focusing on CU’s architecture, that in the early 20th century the university’s architectural firm, Day and Klauder, prepared a master plan for the university that consisted of the popular English Collegiate Gothic style.
Then-architect Charles Klauder created his Campus Development Plan that intended to outline the university in the Gothic style. According to Body and Soul, this style can be seen in some of the earliest buildings on campus, such as Macky Auditorium.
Campus Architect Paul Leef said the desire to have a traditional collegiate Gothic feel came from looking at the other universities at the time.
“They looked back to Cambridge and Oxford,” Leef said. “There was a Gothic revival going on in the 1800’s and some of the American universities looked to what the prestigious universities were doing.”
But Klauder wanted to incorporate local sandstone, which when stacked on itself resembled the village homes he’d seen while traveling through Tuscany, Italy, according to Body and Soul.
“Klauder then took this style and created his own architectural style,” Deno wrote. “Which he called, ‘University of Colorado style.’”
The style is now referred to as Tuscan Vernacular, Leef said. Klauder then showed his new idea for the university’s buildings in this style in a drawing of Carlson Gym.
“He showed the regents a drawing of Carlson Gym in the Gothic and Tuscan Vernacular Style and they chose the rural Italian,” Leef said. “Probably in part because it would be more economically efficient, but also worked very well because it was a regional material.”
The result was an entirely innovative style that combined the Tuscan feel with the West, Leef said.
“The stone made from indigenous material, and the red tile roofs, started to recall the shape of the flatirons and developed an architecture that wasn’t about the east, but the west,” he said. “The style that was developed is an innovation because it was inspired by somewhere else but adapted here.”
Grounded in sustainability
Acquiring indigenous materials for the campus was an important component of the architectural process, even for the campus’ early architects, Deno wrote.
The stone quarries the university purchased the stone from were along the Front Range, from Boulder to North of Loveland, some of which are still active, he wrote.
Leef said the decision by the university’s early regents to select sandstone for the campus probably resulted from a number of reasons.
“Sandstone was local and railroads to quarries were cheap,” Leef said. “I suspect that during this timeframe, with the war [WWI], the regents were concerned about cost.”
The sandstone used today is still transported from locations less than 500 or 600 miles from campus. This is an important requirement in keeping with the university’s sustainability goals and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, Campus Sustainability Director Moe Tabrizi said.
“Any material that is close to our region, that we can get without much energy for extraction, is good,” Tabrizi said. “Sandstone falls into those categories, so as we build new buildings, obviously that’s one of the LEED characteristics we look for.”
The stone is also sustainable because of its durability, Tabrizi said.
“Durability and longevity are important,” Tabrizi said. “Anything that you don’t have to tear up and replace in a short time is obviously good.”
A Tradition Lives On
Mike Heffler, a 19-year-old sophomore biochemical engineering major, said he has been giving campus tours for nearly a year and, often, visiting families are impressed with the campus’ aesthetics.
“A lot of people really like the look of it,” Heffler said. “Some people will say, ‘the last place [university] wasn’t this nice.’”
Heffler said the university standardizes that its student ambassadors, who lead the campus tours, tell visitors a brief history of the architecture and highlight the choice for the Tuscan Vernacular Style, modeled after Italian cities.
“They also like us to tell visitors that all the sandstone we use comes from Lyons,” Heffler said. “So it’s all very local.”
The one exception that is often pointed out is the Engineering Center, a building whose façade is not covered in sandstone for several reasons, Leef said.
These reasons include that the building is too tall for the stone, there was a change in architectural style when it was constructed and also the building was not located on central campus earlier on in the university’s history, he said.
“The location of the Engineering Center was across Folsom Street, which used to go from Colorado to Regent,” Leef said. “People saw the other side of Folsom as the boonies. They didn’t feel like it was part of the main campus and architecturally felt they had more freedom to do something different.”
Leef said the sandstone will continue to be the stone of choice because it fits the campus’ design overall and is in sync with CU’s sustainability goals.
“The buildings create a harmonious background, a sense that there is a greater purpose at work,” Leef said. “The buildings must first function for the programs they serve but they also contribute to the campus by the space, both indoors and out of doors, which they create.”
Contact CU Independent Breaking News Editor Sarah Simmons at Sarah.e.simmons@colorado.edu.
