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CSU Archives and Special Collections

CSU Buildings and Grounds History

A history of CSU's building and grounds from 1870 to the present.

Painter Center/John E. Painter Center for Laboratory Animals/Central Animal Care Facility, 1980-

From CSU's Sense of Place:  A Campus History of Colorado's Land-Grant University, by James E. Hansen, Gordon A. Hazard, and Linda M. Meyer.  Fort Collins, CO:  Colorado State University, 2018.

Architects - Randall Larsen & Associates (original), Architectural Resource Group (2007)

Builder – Reid Burton Construction Company

1351 East Drive

Built on the site of a former trailer court, the Central Animal Care Facility was named for John E. Painter, a pioneering cattle rancher from Roggen, Colorado.  His estate donated money to help build this unique facility for the Department of Laboratory Animal Resources.  It is their mission to provide the highest quality animal care, at the lowest possible cost, for scientists who use animals in their research at Colorado State University.   The Max C. Fleischmann Foundation in Reno, Nevada contributed $950,000 of the cost to build the facility.

Construction by the Reid Burton Construction Company was finished in late 1980. The “John E. Painter Center for Laboratory Animals” was dedicated on January 5, 1981. This building was designed by the architectural firm of Randall Larsen & Associates to house 10,000 small research animals in a very controlled environment.

In August of 2007, the Board of Governors approved the construction of a 10,000 square foot addition that cost $9.2 million.  This work was designed by the Architectural Resource Group.

Sources by Gordon A. Hazard

Rocky Mountain Collegian, October 13, 1921, page 5, vol. XXXI, number 4.

The Colorado Aggie Alumnus, February 1933, page 1, vol. 13, number 8.

CSU Collegian, August 14, 1970, page 1, vol. LXXVIII, number 158.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, August 15, 1970, page 403.

CSU Collegian, August 18, 1970, pages 1 and 3, vol. LXXVIII, number 159.

CSU Collegian, October 9, 1970, page 1, vol. LXXIX, number 14.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, October 30, 1970, pages 439 and 440.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, December 9, 1970, page 463.

CSU Collegian, January 6, 1971, page 8, vol. LXXIX, number 51.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, March 5, 1971, pages 496-497.

Fort Collins Journal, October 20, 1976, page 1, vol. LXXXV.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, March 16, 1979, page 5-2.

Fort Collins Journal, October 23, 1979, page 5, vol. LXXXVIII, number 36.

State Board of Agriculture Minutes, October 17, 1980, page 5-1.

CSU Comments, January 29, 1981, page 1, vol. 11, number 18.

The Collegian, February 11, 1981, pages 11 and 14, vol. LXXXIX, number 67.

Alumnus, March 1981, vol. 57, number 1, page 1.

Colorado State University 1981Summer Session Bulletin, Spring 1981, page 41.

Colorado State University 1983Summer Session Bulletin, Spring 1983, page 41.

Rocky Mountain Collegian, February 23, 1984, page 6, vol. XCII, number 109.

State Board of Agriculture Land: Chuck Terrell Conversation, October 26, 1992, page 5.

Board of Governors minutes, August 24, 2007.

“Democracy’s University – A History of Colorado State University 1970 – 2003” by James E. Hansen II, 2007, p. 228.

Information from Julia Innis of Facilites Management in September 2016.

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