The new building houses a multipurpose conference center, which includes a 2,800-square-foot, full-production kitchen; a beverage management center fashioned after a Tuscan wine cellar; and dining hall with adjacent outdoor dining patio. These conference center facilities include three amphitheatre-style, distance-learning capable classrooms; three model hotel rooms; a front desk-operations center; several group-breakout rooms; and other integrated educational facilities.
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�First-year students will serve food, sophomores will cook and juniors will manage the sophomores and freshmen,� explains Peter Rainsford, director of the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management. �Juniors in sales and marketing classes will book events, while students in the finance and accounting class will keep the books. Teams of seniors will work as food and beverage managers, general managers, catering managers and marketing directors.�

Unlike many other schools in the industry, DU�s HRTM School offers a management program that is part of the University�s Daniels College of Business. In addition to learning about the lodging, restaurant and tourism sectors, students receive sound business training from experienced, engaged faculty members, many of whom are internationally recognized in their fields.

�We�re a management school, not a culinary school,� said Rainsford. �We teach management, using food and beverage as a tool.�

Plans for this new facility have been in the works for more than three years. They began with HRTM faculty members creating the best program possible for educating students in this field. The building was then designed to meet the needs of the curriculum.

The 45,000-square-foot facility, houses three floors. The first floor (garden level) features a dining room with seating for 120 and additional seating on an adjacent patio; the full-production kitchen; a food production lab; the beverage management center; and a distance-learning-capable, food and beverage demonstration kitchen.

The second floor serves as the lobby level with an atrium, a hotel front desk and concierge areas, a business center, breakout rooms and meeting/seminar rooms.

The third floor houses three model guest rooms � one each of a luxury, mid-scale and all-suite style. Faculty and staff offices; a common area for students, faculty and staff; and a boardroom are also located on the third level.

The exterior of the building will feature a dome of deep crimson glazed tile with gold-leafed accents and will complement the campus� other buildings with red brick, limestone trim and copper roofing. The interior will feature numerous glass walls in order to allow students, faculty and visitors to see the inner workings of this �management laboratory.�

The new building, which will accommodate 360 students, was designed by Rainsford, Mark Rogers, university architect, and Gensler Architects, the architect of record.

The University of Denver�s School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management was established in 1946 and is one of the most prominent hotel programs in the nation. A division of the Daniels College of Business, the School enjoys a superb reputation for innovative educational programs. The student-oriented faculty members are internationally recognized for their contributions to teaching, research and publications in a variety of hospitality fields.

The Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver was named one of the top 50 business schools in the world by The Wall Street Journal (2004). As the eighth oldest collegiate school of business in the country, Daniels has built a curriculum of substance offering more than eight graduate degree programs with over 15 concentrations designed to match the needs of students who require both breadth and depth in their business education. Headquartered in one of the nation�s leading business education facilities, the Daniels College of Business is located on the 125-acre University of Denver campus.