COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Sept. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Colorado College has completed a $45 million renovation, making Tutt Library the largest carbon neutral, net-zero energy academic library in the country, a milestone achieved despite the addition of approximately 25,000 square feet and doubling the seating capability.
Colorado College’s Class of 2021 will be the first to learn, conduct research and study in a library built specifically for the college’s pioneering Block Plan schedule, in which students study one course at a time in intensive 3½-week segments.
Tutt Library has been technologically transformed, with a data visualization lab, space for new and emerging technology, Geospatial Information Systems laboratory and an experimental classroom equipped with teaching technology.
Photo credit: Jennifer Coombes
Advanced audiovisual and technology-centric systems including wireless accessibility meet current and anticipated future demands. Faculty and students are able to access collections and information, and communicate with each other, even while off campus during CC’s signature field study and study abroad experiences.
Appropriately, one of the first classes to be taught in the new library is Colorado College President Jill Tiefenthaler’s Economics of Higher Education, which she co-teaches with her husband, Research Professor Kevin Rask.
The newly renovated library provides a physical home for academic services including the Crown Center, the Colket Center for Academic Excellence, library services and technology services. Innovative and collaborative learning and event spaces provide opportunities to showcase faculty and student projects, and there are support services for undergraduate and faculty research.
An adjacent geothermal energy field has 80 wells, each 400 feet deep and five and a half inches wide, which function as a heat exchanger for the reversible geothermal heat pump that provides both heating and cooling in the library. Additionally, a 115-kilowatt rooftop solar array, 400-kilowatt offsite solar array and 130-kilowatt combined heat and power system are all part of the project.
Photo by Jennifer Coombes.
The 94,317 square-foot library includes 12,976 square feet of glass and has a seating capacity of approximately 1,100. There are terraces on each level with views of Pikes Peak and a live green roof.
The library recently received the 2017 Innovation Award by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). The NACUBO Innovation Award Program honors higher education institutions that have made commitments and improvements across both process improvement and resource enhancement.
