Fort Lewis College - Campus

Campus

The 247-acre Fort Lewis College campus is in southwestern Colorado is situated at 6,872 feet atop a mesa overlooking the Animas River Valley and downtown Durango. A network of trails as well as city bus service (free to students with FLC IDs) connects the campus and town.

The campus' distinctive architectural theme utilizes locally quarried sandstone to acknowledge the region's Native puebloan building style and evoke the Four Corners landscape and colors. The style was crafted by prominent Boulder architect James M. Hunter, who was contracted to establish a campus building plan by the college in the late 1950s, following the college's move from Hesperus, Colorado, to its Durango location.

Today, on-campus housing is in six residence halls and two apartment buildings, with singles, doubles, and suites. Also on campus are 14 academic buildings, as well as a Student Life Center, Aquatic Center, and Student Union. On-campus athletic facilities include Ray Dennison Memorial Field, Dirks Field, the Softball Complex, Whalen Gymnasium, and the Factory Trails, an off-road bicycling race course.

The new Student Union opened in Fall 2011, and now hosts the college's cultural centers, the Native American Center and El Centro de Muchos Colores, as well as student government, the Environmental Center, the post office, and the bookstore. The new Student Union also offers several dining options, and houses both a Leadership Center and a Media Center that includes the college's news magazine, literary journal, and KDUR radio station.

The Student Union building was awarded LEED Gold status in August by the U.S. Green Building Council for its sustainability features. It is the third LEED Gold building on campus, along with the Berndt Hall Biology Wing and the residential Animas Hall. Those environmental awards helped FLC be named one of "America's Coolest Schools" by Sierra magazine, the official publication of the Sierra Club, in 2011.

Other notable on-campus facilities include:

• Art Gallery

The Art Building's Art Gallery brings local, regional, and national exhibitions to the campus, providing students both a research tool and a venue for public exposure for their own creations.

• Center of Southwest Studies

Completed in 2001, the shapes and stonework of the Center of Southwest Studies complex reflect the ancestral puebloan structures found throughout the Four Corners. The Center is home to the Anthropology and Native American & Indigenous Studies programs, and the Delaney Southwest Research Library. The Exhibit Gallery also features a solstice window that focuses the first rays of the summer solstice sun, casting a spiral image on the gallery wall.

• Community Concert Hall

One of the largest live-performance venues in the region, the 600-seat Community Concert Hall hosts local, regional, and national music, comedy, drama, lecture, and dance acts in an intimate setting. The Concert Hall lobby also features more than a dozen Southwestern landscape paintings by Stanton Englehart, a founding faculty member of the FLC Art Department renowned for capturing the beauty and mystery of the canyon country of the Colorado Plateau.

• John F. Reed Memorial Library

Opened in 1967, stone used in the construction of the Library was quarried just three miles from campus. With a study area facing a large wall of windows offering views to the La Plata and San Juan mountains, Reed Library is one of the most popular study spots on campus.

• Mainstage Theatre

Home to frequent faculty-directed shows, student productions, and class projects, the Theatre Building's Mainstage Theatre has been the center for campus drama and performing arts for more than 50 years.

• McPherson Chapel

Built in 1958 as part of the original Durango campus, this stone chapel's construction was funded entirely with donations. The large windows allow for a stunning view of sunsets behind the Animas River Valley and La Plata Mountains. The Chapel provides a non-denominational place of meditation, and is also a popular wedding site.