Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design history

In 1965, RMCAD faculty member Clark Richert, along with a group of like-minded creatives, founded an artists’ community in Southern Colorado called Drop City.

In 1967, Drop City won Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Award for innovative and economic housing construction.

The students of the 1969 business management class became involved in the decision process for the creation of Anderson Hall by completing a short case study of the proposed new residence hall.

Anderson Hall was completed in 1970, with 20,000 square feet for housing 82 students as well as the residence hall director.

Tyler Hall continued to house students until 1971.

Kenny Hall was demolished in 1973 due to water damage and structural deterioration, and some of its stone blocks, including its cornerstone, were incorporated into Bair Science Center, which occupies Kenney Hall's site.

The fall of 1981 included the opening ceremony for the Bair Science Center, officially named the Charles M. Bair Family Center for the Sciences.

It is named for the Charles M. Bair Family Trust that was created after the death of philanthropist Alberta Bair in 1993.

In 1998, following a successful $4.2 million fundraising campaign, construction began on the new DeRosier Educational Resource Center, an addition to the Paul M. Adams Library.

Now named Morledge-Kimball, the hall received renovation and restoration in 2009.

In 2014, amidst a turnover of a significant number of key faculty, RMCAD rescheduled its in-person campus courses to align with the scheduling of online classes, and to cut costs moved most liberal arts courses on line.