Saunders Construction and 4240 Architecture Kick-off Design and Construction for the New Meridian Village Student Housing Project on CSU’s Growing Campus

(Fort Collins, Colo.) November 26, 2019 – Saunders Construction, Inc., a leading general contractor in Colorado, in conjunction with recognized design partner, 4240 Architecture Inc., has been awarded the design and construction for Meridian Village, one of Colorado State University’s (CSU) largest projects to date. Located on CSU’s main campus, the new residential village will be located just north of Canvas Stadium and southwest of Lory Student Center. At full build-out, Meridian Village will accommodate 1,600 students in both traditional and pod communities to continue to support student success and engagement.

The team has just completed a dynamic seven-month programming effort and will continue to work closely with CSU Facilities Management and Housing & Dining Services to bring the project to life. Both Saunders and 4240 have deep experience within the residential and higher education sectors. Saunders has previous experience on CSU’s campus with the Lory Student Center renovation and the Student Recreation Center renovation, while 4240 has designed over 4,000 student beds and over 15 projects for CSU including key projects Laurel Village, Aggie Village, Durrell Center, and the recently completed Warner College of Natural Resources Michael Smith Addition.

“Saunders couldn’t be more excited to continue our relationship with CSU,” said Tom Alford, vice president of Saunders Construction. “The opportunity to be a part of this amazing project and help create a world-class student environment is tremendously gratifying.”

Lou Bieker, principal at 4240 Architecture, also added, “We have an opportunity and responsibility to create a home for each student that chooses CSU as their academic institution. An opportunity to design a vibrant residential village that provides the comforts of home, the community support of a village, and the setting to inspire and promote wellbeing for all. Couple this with CSU, a client that cares deeply for the student experience and challenges the design team to deliver not just a place to rest your head, but a place to create life-long friendships and memories while living within the new Meridian Village.”

Housing & Dining Services is planning for the future through this new project – accommodating first-year and returning students. Phase I will include three residential buildings that will house approximately 1,100 students. Construction will also include off-site utility and road improvement work. Meridian Village holds several big-picture goals at the forefront of this redevelopment effort:

• Accommodate housing capacity needs for all first-year students who are required to live on-campus.
• Allow for greater accommodation of returning students, building on recent Housing & Dining initiatives like the redevelopment of Aggie Village.
• Accommodate additional dining capacity centered around students’ desired dining experience and fresh new concepts (planned for Phase II).
• Foster the CSU Principles of Community: inclusion, integrity, respect, service and social justice.
• Focus on furthering cross-disciplinary academic integration within the residential experience beyond program-specific opportunities.
• Design around intentional neighborhood creation to promote sustainability as well as occupant health and wellness.

“Housing & Dining Services has seen great success in building residence hall villages, in which groups of buildings are integrated with on-site amenities, strengthening connections between outdoor and indoor spaces and arranging buildings and massing to break down the large university feel into smaller and more community-centric patterns,” said Mari Strombom, executive director of Housing & Dining Service. “Academic Village was the first such residence at CSU, opening in 2008, followed by Laurel Village in 2014.”

The Saunders | 4240 team were awarded the design-build contract following a lengthy design-build competition that included numerous collaborative design-build workshops with CSU Facilities, Housing & Dining Services, current students, and its many user groups.

About Saunders

Saunders serves the commercial building industry as a full-service general contractor, design-builder and construction manager. A leader in the Colorado construction industry since its inception in 1972, Saunders’ experience includes a wide range of project types. Saunders is one of the region’s largest general contractors and is the recipient of more than 100 industry awards for its construction excellence, employee achievements and community contributions. In addition, Saunders is a member of the Citadel Group – an alliance of seven regional construction-related companies with operations in 19 cities.

About 4240 Architecture

4240 Architecture is a Colorado-based, hands-on, full-service design firm focused on site-specific projects across the globe. Using a research-based process, 4240 thrives in providing design solutions that cross-pollinate and integrate typologies—bringing the best design forward. 4240 has completed over 1.2m sf of Higher Education projects with market influences ranging from mixed-use urban infill, multi-family residential, commercial, government, and resort hospitality. Notable awards include the 2016 AIA Colorado Award of Merit for The Pavilion at CSU’s Laurel Village, the 2014 SCUP/AIA-CAE Excellence in Architecture Award for CSU’s Durrell Center, and DBIA’s National Award of Merit – Education Facilities for CU Boulder’s Kittredge Central, West and Community Commons. Learn more at www.4240architecture.com.