The ribbon at Colorado State University’s newest building was cut by a dog. Wonder did the honors last week at the grand opening of the Veterinary Hospital and Education Complex in Fort Collins, in front of more than 500 guests, according to the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
The complex, which CSU calls VHEC, cost $230 million, including a $50 million investment of state funding, and covers 213,000 square feet. It was designed around two jobs at once: treating animals and training the people who will treat them.
What is inside
For pet owners in Northern Colorado, the headline is the primary care suite, which CSU says triples capacity with 24 new exam rooms where students learn to deliver care. The building also adds space for emergency and urgent care, critical care, dentistry and ophthalmology, along with a pharmacy, a new livestock hospital and modern classrooms.
For students, the change is bigger than the square footage. CSU says the expanded facilities let its Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program admit about 30 additional students each year, and that under its new curriculum students will work directly with patients in their first year instead of their third.
Not everything is open yet. The university says the educational spaces and the new specialty hospital entrance are open now, and that the remaining clinical spaces will open in phases over the next few months, with the complex fully operating by the end of the year.
By the numbers
- $230 million: cost of the complex, including $50 million in state funding
- 213,000: square feet
- 24: new exam rooms in the primary care suite
- About 30: additional veterinary students CSU says it can admit each year
- More than 500: guests at the ribbon-cutting
- More than 25: specialty services offered by CSU’s Small Animal Specialty Hospital
What to know
- Who: Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, led by Dean Sue VandeWoude
- Where: The CSU veterinary campus in Fort Collins. The announcement does not give a street address.
- Open now: Educational spaces and the new specialty hospital entrance
- Still to come: Remaining clinical spaces, opening in phases through the end of the year
- Booking care: The announcement does not say how or when the public can book appointments in the new spaces; check with the CSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
- Read more: CSU’s story on the grand opening
More like this: Find the Good, Fort Collins, CSU’s C.A.N.S. Around the Oval food drive, More than 450 donors backed the Longmont Museum’s expansion, Red Rocks Community College students run a free monthly health clinic
