Colorado College Receives Award for Renovation of Cossitt Hall - Colorado College

Colorado College received an award of excellence from the Historic Preservation Alliance of Colorado Springs for its restoration of the Fredrick H. Cossitt Memorial Hall. The award specifically cites the “historically compatible civil restoration” of Cossitt Hall, 906 N. Cascade Ave.
Since its dedication in June 1914, Cossitt Hall has been an iconic structure on the Colorado College campus. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 and also is on Colorado College’s self-guided historic walking tour.
The Cossitt Hall renovation was a challenge because the building is in near-constant use. Renovation priorities included keeping the historic architecture intact while improving the building’s energy efficiency; increasing accessibility; and making effective use of the building’s interior spaces.
Cossitt Hall today houses the classics and comparative literature departments, a faculty commons, three new dance studio/classrooms, offices for dance professors, new locker rooms, practice areas and green rooms for the dance program.
When first construced, the hall provided both social and athletic facilities for CC’s male students. In 1918 during World War I, the more than 500 men assigned to the Army Signal Corps School at the college were quartered in the building’s gymnasium and served meals in its dining room. As early as 1914, the senior class staged Euripides’ “Electra” in Cossitt Bowl during commencement, and in the 1920s and 1930s several plays were presented there.
In 1948 artist Eric Bransby painted a mural in the entrance rotunda of Cossitt, and for 43 summers dance artist Hanya Holm conducted a dance course, mostly taught in Cossitt Gymnasium. Today CC’s Summer Dance Festival also uses the facilities in Cossitt Hall. For more information on the Cossitt Hall renovation, go to: http://www.coloradocollege.edu/welcome/walkingtour/CossittRestorationPresentation.pdf