University of Denver Community Commons | Denver - Colorado | 2021

Architects: Moore Ruble Yudell
Principals in Charge: Buzz Yudell, Jeanne Chen, and Mario Violich
Executive Architects: Anderson Mason Dale Architects
Principals in Charge: Andy Nielsen and Erin Hillhouse
Client: University of Denver
Photographers: Frank Ooms, Wayne Armstrong, and Jonathan Knight

The University of Denver’s (DU) new Community Commons welcomes a diverse student community by bringing a critical mass of students and resources to the center of campus as a primary goal of the University’s strategic plan. Since opening in 2021, the project funnels and mixes students capturing movement to and from the new first-year housing, with a variety of gathering and working spaces for students, faculty, staff and visitors to dine, meet, socialize, study, and make use of the school’s supportive services. Located at a campus crossroads, the Community Commons creates multiple scales of connectivity along tiered paths that evoke the canyons of Colorado’s regional landscapes and, in concert with the new, adjacent First Year Residence Hall, transforms the historic campus core into a center of student activity and life.

Through its planning and massing, the project strengthens the campus’s identity within its Denver context, operating as a gateway along Denver’s Evans Avenue and its nearby light rail station. The building also creates connections with its community by blurring boundaries between shared and individual space and indoor and outdoor space. At the rooftop, an unexpected pavilion provides an intimate house-like scale of multi-use area and offers yet another distinctly different experience to the DU community. This pavilion opens to a rooftop terrace with stunning views of the mountains and overall campus and highlights an active green roof, the largest on DU’s campus.
The Community Commons conveys a message of openness and invitation through transparency that invites participation, places where you can see yourself and where you can express yourself. Food is used strategically to unite the entire community and moves the campus towards a centralized dining system. Flexible, open, and visible spaces welcome and reinforce a sense of belonging that is key to keeping students on campus and support their success.

The Community Commons sets high sustainable design goals and engaged the DU community to integrate environmental and health and wellness strategies into the design. Providing equitable access to daylight is achieved through a north-facing clerestory that spans the entire building length to leverage Denver’s 300 annual days of sunshine. Individual well-being is further enhanced thru social stairs along the flow path, operable windows, individual control, and outdoor terraces and gardens that connect to nature and enrich social interactions. Anti-microbial, locally sourced, exterior copper cladding connects the building to the region.

Responsive planning and high-performance building systems reduce energy use by 49%. Intentional engagement provided important opportunities to inform the design and actively strengthen community, prioritize access, and integrate sustainability and well-being. A highly participatory process revealed evolving needs and priorities for the University of Denver to respond to the concerns of students, staff and faculty and contribute to a more equitable and interconnected campus. The Community Commons transforms the way the DU community interacts by reimagining the way space is used on campus.