Denver-based Boettcher Foundation awarded Colorado College a $400,000 grant in May to help transform one of CC’s historic architectural gems into a technological gem as well.

The Boettcher grant furthers a renovation project that is reconfiguring learning and collaborative spaces in 100-year-old Palmer Hall, which is Colorado College’s largest classroom building. The renovation project is redistributing space for classrooms, as well as outfitting them with state-of-the-art audiovisual, new media, and wireless Internet capabilities.

The campaign for the Centennial Renovation project was launched in the fall of 2003 with a commitment of $1 million from El Pomar Foundation. In March, the Adolph Coors Foundation granted $400,000 toward the project. Trustees have pledged $300,000, while alumni, faculty, and friends of the college continue to support the renovation with individual gifts. The Boettcher funding is in the form of a challenge grant, which will be contingent upon CC securing the remaining money necessary for the $4 million project. With the grant, the campaign now has $2.5 million of its goal.

Palmer Hall, which is listed on the U.S. Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places, currently houses Colorado College’s business and economics, education, geology, history, political science, and sociology departments. In addition, thousands of community members participate in lectures and other events in Palmer’s Gates Common Room, and elementary school students and teachers utilize the building for Whiz Bang Summer Science camps and a gifted and talented program.