Title: UNIVERSITY OF DENVER DRISCOLL CENTER
Location Current Site: Denver CO UNITED STATES
Creator Personal Name: Michael Barber Architecture
Creator Assoc Person Biography: University of Colorado undergraduate student
Creator Assoc Person Name: Geist,David R
Creator Assoc Person Role: Photographer
Date.Creation: 1984-1984
Subject.Image Description: Roof Detail
Creator.Personal Name Label: Michael Barber Architecture
Description.Image Comments: Roof detail
Style/Period: Late Modern
Style/Period Description: LATE MODERNISM
(1970-1990S)
This style developed in the 1970s as a continuation of the Second International Style. Late Modernists have attempted to create the expression in architecture of the conditions of the modern industrialized world, but have extended the language of earlier modernism to include a richer range of forms. Some Late Modernists create visual interest by pulling structural members to the outside of the buildings, and others by modeling the building forms more sculpturally, often to emphasize, or appear to emphasize, the different functional elements. These architects tend to emphasize the expression of structure or the expression of function.
An influential architect for Late Modernists was Louis Kahn (1901-74); his Yale Center for British Art (1969-77) in New Haven, Connecticut, has been admired and emulated. Another admired practitioner of Late Modernism is I.M. Pei, architect of the East Building of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. and of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
Subject Image View Type: Exterior, detail
Description.Subject Report: DRISCOLL CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF DENVER, DENVER. The University of Denver, Colorado's oldest institution of higher education, was founded as the Denver Seminary by territorial governor John Evans in 1864. After bankruptcy in 1867, it reopened in 1880 as the University of Denver and Colorado Seminary. Located in southeast Denver, the campus is bounded by University Boulevard, Evans Avenue, Wesley Avenue, and High Street. In the 1890s, the surrounding University Park neighborhood was designed with four landscaped parks. From 1900 to 1920, the university was shaped by Chancellor Henry A. Buchtel, who also served as Colorado governor from 1907 to 1909. During the 1940s, DU built a College of Business in downtown Denver northwest of the Civic Center, and also had a short-lived school of architecture. The expansive, rust-colored brick Driscoll Center was designed by the Denver firm of Michael Barber Architecture. Built in 1984, the student center was named for William T. Driscoll, an Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The 100,000-square-feet facility features an enclosed pedestrian bridge spanning Evans Avenue and connecting north and south wings. The building's form, scale, and exterior materials echo the adjacent russet-brick Mary Reed Library Building, dormitories, apartment houses, and fraternity houses built in the mid 20th century. A glass-walled atrium occupies the entire east facade. Inside one finds the surprising use of deep-blue ceramic wall tile, contrasting with the glass-paned atrium and earth-toned slate floor tiles. The three-story north wing houses administration offices, student activities center, music listening lounge, conference rooms, Governors Hall, Founders Lounge, information desk, cafeteria, pub, and recreation center. The two-story south wing contains the university bookstore, student services center, and yearbook offices. The project received the AIA Western Mountain Regional Award. Sources: Allen D. Breck, From the Rockies to the World, Denver: Hirschfeld Press, 1989. (David Romney Geist and Cathleen Norman, 1999)
ID Number.Former Image Accession VISC: 34952
Date.Image: 1997
Rights Description: Copyright owned by The Regents of the University of Colorado, a body corporate, and the photographer. All rights reserved.
Creator.Comments: U.S. Designer
Collection Name: Architecture and Planning Collection
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