WE'RE BUILDING THE FUTURE OF  THE

LIBERAL ARTS AT CSU

Building the Future of Liberal Arts

CSU’s bold investment in the Clark building is an investment in the transformative learning experience of every CSU student. It is an investment in a world-class education for future Coloradans. It is an investment in community impact and groundbreaking research.

The time to make this investment in the future of education, and in the future of Colorado, is now.

About the Project

At the heart of Colorado State University’s thriving campus stands the Andrew G. Clark Building. Clark is not only home to classrooms, liberal arts faculty and staff offices and laboratories, but to nearly every CSU student:

  • 97% of all undergraduate students will take at least one class here during their time on campus, regardless of their major,
  • in any given year Clark serves 70% of all CSU undergraduates.
  • Seven of eight colleges teach classes in Clark.

Every day thousands of CSU community members navigate the Clark building’s winding halls, making it the most-visited academic building on campus—and those halls are all about to change.

Colorado State University is making a bold investment in the bright future of the liberal arts and student success with a $136 million project to build a new wing of the Andrew G. Clark Building.

“Great buildings create transformative opportunities,” College of Liberal Arts Dean Kjerstin Thorson said, “and a great university has strength in all major disciplines, including where students learn.”

Why the Liberal Arts

Core to CSU’s land-grant mission are the liberal arts and the lifelong skills that a liberal arts education provides: writing, communication, critical thinking, creative thinking, understanding society and culture and understanding our many histories.

To be a liberal arts student at CSU is a transformative, eye-opening experience, and learning in the new Clark building’s radiant, fresh spaces will now match that experience. The future of the liberal arts is bold, bright and sweeping, and CSU’s investment in Clark will bring this future to life.

“I’ve always thought about Clark as the public square of campus; a place to exchange information, a place to hang out and a place that demonstrates in real and tangible ways the power and impact of the liberal arts on this campus and in the world.”

– Nick DeSalvo, political science major and 2024-2025 Associated Students of CSU President

"The breadth and depth of research in our College represents the best of what a modern liberal arts education can achieve. Our faculty and students aren't just exploring academic questions – they're developing solutions for Colorado's communities, shaping national conversations, and preparing the next generation of thought leaders. When you combine rigorous scholarship with a commitment to public impact, that's where true innovation happens.”

– Elissa Braunstein, Professor of Economics and Research Associate Dean

“The liberal arts are uniquely positioned to prepare us for the future. History teaches us the choices of the past so we can evaluate the impact of the choices we’re making now. Literature and art use the imagination to ask, what worlds in which we don’t currently live can we work to create?”

– Director of the Joe Blake Center for the Engaged Humanities and Communication Studies Professor Greg Dickinson

“Having state-of-the-art lab spaces is so impactful for students, especially as we prepare for jobs in archaeology and related fields. Being able to work with advanced tools and in well-designed spaces helps us build the hands-on skills we need for our careers.”

– Anthropology graduate student Aleah Kuhr

“I am excited for the future of Clark where teaching, research and public engagement will come together in new ways. Our teaching and research labs will be glass-walled living exhibits, allowing our communities to casually observe the materials and research that tell the story of humans and our ancestors.”

– Michael Pante, Department Chair and Professor of Anthropology and Geography

Spaces in the New Clark

Clark B will take shape as a four-story, 120,000-square-foot building with a radiant glass, stone and steel façade connecting the A and C wings. Outside, a welcoming plaza with tables and chairs will ring with lively student, faculty and staff conversations. Upon entering the building, students will flow between classes through the open and sunlit throughways.

The ground floor’s 15 new classrooms range from a 300-seat modular classroom to smaller, 15-seat seminar rooms.

High-impact teaching methods are made possible by flexible classroom arrangements, including shifting easily between lectures, small group work, class discussions and more.

Floor 1

  • Student Success Center that includes the Writing Center and the College of Liberal Arts Advising Center
    (serving more than 4,000 undergraduate majors every year)
  • Large classrooms and small seminar rooms
  • Small study nooks and private rooms
  • Lounges
  • Patio between Clark and Eddy
  • Thoroughfare from A to C
Rendering of office space for the CSU Writing Center, including individual offices and a common area with a kitchenette and meeting table and whiteboard
Rendering of the CSU Writing Center, Floor 1 in New Clark
Rendering of a classroom designed for anthropology, with movable tables and chairs with display cases for archeological objects
Rendering of Anthropology Lab, Floor 2 of New Clark

Floor 2

  • Repository of 13,000 years of Colorado pre-history on display by the Department of Anthropology and Geography
  • Anthropology and Geography labs
  • The Academic Advancement Center that supports first-generation, low-income, and underserved students from all majors and disciplines
    (serving more than 700 students every year)
  • Patio overlooking Monfort Quad
  • Thoroughfare from A to C

Floor 3

  • Department offices
  • Reception and conference spaces
Rendering of a conference space with six round tables dressed in a white tablecloths with people dressed in formal business attire
Rendering of conference space, Floor 3 in New Clark
Rendering of a sunset on a west facing patio with the views of Horsetooth on the fourth floor of the New Clark
Rendering of the patio space, Floor 4 in the New Clark

Floor 4

  • Department offices
  • The Joe Blake Center for Engaged Humanities
  • The Straayer Center for Public Service Leadership
  • The Center for Public Deliberation
  • Large event space
  • Seminar rooms
  • Meeting spaces
  • Patio looking to the Front Range

Departments to be Located in Clark B

Associate Professor Kimberly Nichols, Director of the Primate Origins Laboratory in the Anthropology and Geography Department in the College of Liberal Arts works with student in resotration and storage of fossil fragments, Septebmer 25, 2019.

Anthropology and Geography

Students walking in a national park as part of the Public Lands History Center's Parks as Portals to Learning initiative

History

Chuchang Chiu helps students

Languages, Literatures and Cultures & International Studies

Students in a sociology class

Sociology

Contact the Development Team

Kevin Weaver

  • Managing Director of Development

970-491-5120

kevin.weaver@colostate.edu

Diana Cruz

  • Associate Director of Development

970-946-7746

diana.cruz@colostate.edu

Lara Meyer

  • Associate Director of Development

(970) 491-7866

lara.meyer@colostate.edu

Emily Waldron

  • Donor Relations and Operations Coordinator

970-491-0349

Emily.Waldron@colostate.edu