CU Denver's downtown brand: 'education corridor' targets work-school synergies.

• Author: Caley, Nora
• Position: EDUCATION REPORT

As the University of Colorado Denver expands its downtown campus, it is doing more than just constructing new buildings. The school. which has more than 141,000 students in downtown Denver, is building an education corridor.

"The symbolism is that a corridor connects." says Chancellor Don Elliman. As an urban-based research university, we have the ability to connect to the community."

CU Denver connects to the community by making it easy for adults who work downtown to attend classes at the campus, and for students to get internships and jobs downtown. The university's emphasis, Elliman says, is on a professionally targeted education. The average age of Denver undergraduate students is 24, which is older than traditional college students. It's a group that is, among other things, focused.

"On a campus like ours, 80 to 90 percent of students have a good idea of what they are studying for, so they have some specificity to their courses," Elliman says. " We are thrilled with our location. It allows us to connect to a part of Denver that is pretty vibrant."

The anchor of the corridor is the CU Denver Business School Building. at 1475 Lawrence St. CU's newest building, which opened in fall 2011. features floor-to-ceiling windows at the street level. an atrium, and a new location of Udi's. the bakery cafe chain that was founded in Denver. The architectural details are intended to make the place look more like an office building than a typical academic building, to make the transition. from school to work seamless.

The building design is also intended to encourage collaboration, as it is now much easier for students and faculty to get together for a chat about finance over a cup of coffee. Before, the various departments of the CU Denver Business School were in 15 different locations.

The new building houses the J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities, also new. The center focuses on agriculture, energy and minerals. Although the term "commodities" usually brings to mind the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and trading futures in gold, silver, oranges and pork bellies, there is more to the commodities business than traders. In fact, it makes perfect sense for Colorado to have a commodities center, says Sueann Ambron, dean of the CU Denver Business School.

"Commodities are what Colorado is built on, she says. "We are not just producing traders, but people who understand something about commodities." That means, for example, lawyers who deal with mining...