CU Anschutz developing Net Zero Energy campus safety building

By Chris Casey
CU Anschutz Today

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus leaders broke ground on Oct. 28 for what will be a historic building – the first Net Zero Energy facility in the entire CU system.

The Campus Safety & Emergency Preparedness Services building, slated for opening in October 2022, will be constructed at the corner of Victor Street and East 17th Place, on the northeast side of campus. The $15.3 million, 26,100-square-foot building will house the University Police, Electronic Security, Emergency Management and Emergency Communications Center.

University Police Chief Randy Repola thanked the campus leadership team for putting the new building process into motion over five years ago. University Police headquarters have been housed for over 20 years at Building 407, on the northwest side of campus.

Purpose-built campus safety facility

“Thank you for investing in us and helping to equip us with a purpose-built campus safety facility that will further enhance our ability to support the campus’s research, education and patient-care missions,” Repola said.

Jay Campbell, associate vice chancellor for facilities management, said the new facility will be a big step forward for the police, who have been in “a 1938 old Army building” for the past two decades.

“It gets them into a state-of-the-art, Net Zero police facility, which I’m happy to say will be the first Net Zero Energy building that the entire CU system has,” Campbell said. “I’m proud of that, and that will be a feather in our cap in the friendly competition we have with our peers at the other institutions.”

A Net Zero designation means that the annual amount of energy consumed by the facility will be offset by onsite renewable energy generation. Some of the building’s features include a state-of-the-art HVAC system, efficient thermal envelope, lighting controls to reduce lighting costs and on-site solar.

‘Sense of community’

Campbell said the Campus Safety & Emergency Preparedness Services building location next to the Campus Services building, home to facilities management and related operations, will “build more of a sense of community with the police department and really kick off what will be the future of campus safety and emergency preparedness.”

The building will connect to B610, which had been used by the U.S. Army as a vivarium but, until this project, had not been previously occupied by the university. Saunders Construction Inc. and AndersonMasonDale Architects, which teamed up on the design-build competition process, are partnering with CU on the project.  

Terri Carrothers, executive vice chancellor for administration and finance and chief financial officer, said she remembers when, prior to the CU Anschutz move, University Police was located in a basement facility on the Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard Health Sciences Campus.

“You all are finally getting what you deserve, and I couldn’t be more proud of you,” she said. “I’m excited that you’re going to have a great place in which to do components of your work.”

CU Anschutz Chancellor Don Elliman echoed the praise for the University Police and emergency preparedness team on campus. “You provide a phenomenal service for us,” he said. “We rest on your shoulders literally every day, and I can’t thank you enough for what you do.”