Over the past year, the entire campus and surrounding DU community have watched the day-to-day construction progress of the University’s newest building — Katherine A. Ruffatto Hall.
Now just minor finishing touches remain, and faculty and staff have moved into the new home of the Morgridge College of Education. Students began summer courses there June 14.
Construction began a year ago on the 73,568-square-foot, $21.6 million building located on the corner of Evans Avenue and High Street. The building is the result of a gift from Mike and the late Joan Ruffatto and the Morgridge Family Foundation. It is named after the Ruffattos’ daughter, Katherine (BA biological science ’05).
Jane Loefgren, the primary architect in the design of Ruffatto Hall, says the building has been constructed to provide spaces for collaboration. “Ruffatto Hall will provide a flexible, innovative and multidisciplinary learning environment, and it takes advantage of its location to provide great views of both the campus and the mountains,” Loefgren says.
Final landscaping and site infrastructure work will be ongoing throughout the summer, she says. Ruffatto Hall houses approximately 75 faculty and staff. It also will house the John and Tashia Morgridge Literacy Intervention Clinic, the Marsico Institute for Early Learning and Literacy, the Institute for the Development of Gifted Education, the James C. Kennedy Institute for Educational Success, the DU Learning Effectiveness Program and Disability Services.