Editors: Photographers are welcome at the April 5 dedication ceremony, which will include Bruce Benson and Bruce Curtis unveiling the new "Bruce Curtis Building" sign. The building is located at Broadway and College Avenue on the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder campus.
A dedication ceremony for the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at Boulder Museum of Natural History's new $6.1 million museum collections building renovation will be held Friday, April 5, at 4 p.m. on the north side of the building.
Bruce and Marcy Benson donated generously toward the project, and in honor of this gift, the building has been re-named the Bruce Curtis Building in recognition of geology Professor Emeritus Bruce Curtis, who was Benson's mentor at ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder.
Benson and Curtis will speak at the ceremony, and will be joined by state Sen. Terry Phillips, J.D. Beatty from the Office of the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ President, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Philip DiStefano, Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of the Graduate School Carol Lynch and ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder Museum of Natural History Director Linda Cordell.
Benson, a 1964 ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder graduate with a bachelor's degree in geology, owns the Benson Mineral Group Inc. He served on the board of directors of the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Foundation from 1990 to 1996, and contributed generously and led the effort to raise funds for the Benson Earth Sciences Building, named in his honor and dedicated in October 1997.
Curtis joined the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder geology faculty in 1957 and taught subsurface methods, geology of organic fuels and related subjects for nearly 30 years. He served as chair of the geological sciences department from 1961 to 1967. He retired in 1983.
The 44,000-square-foot building, formerly known as the Geology Building, opened for classes in January 2002 and houses the Museum and Field Studies graduate program and more than 3 million specimens from the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder Museum of Natural History's extensive collection, according to David Bloom, assistant director of the museum.
The renovated building includes five classrooms, three of which are "smart" classrooms, several laboratories and collection libraries, a walk-in freezer for specimen decontamination and a casting lab to replicate paleontological items.
The state-of-the-art building has a specially designed laboratory classroom and brought together the museum's biology and paleontology collections for the first time, giving students access to the most extensive library of natural diversity in the state.
In summer 2001, many of the museum's specimens were packed up and moved across campus to the renovated building. Many of the specimens had been housed in the Hunter Science Building, which was demolished in December 2001 to make way for future construction of the ATLAS building and expansion of the Sibell Wolle Fine Arts Building.
Founded in 1902, the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Museum began as a small collection including fossils, a few mounted birds and mammals, some mollusk shells and rocks and minerals. Today, the museum collection has grown to include more than 4 million specimens.
The Bruce Curtis Building is located at Broadway and College Avenue on the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder campus.