The Given Institute in Aspen Colorado was built to house the Advances in Molecular Biology Conference sponsored by the University of Colorado School of Medicine. This Conference on medical research was in keeping with the tradition of "The Aspen Idea" creating a space for thinkers, leaders, artists and musicians from all over the world to join together in a setting that feeds the "Mind, Body and Spirit". [1]
The first Conference was held in the Aspen Middle School gymnasium in 1964. Dr. Donald West King then Chairman of the Department of Pathology at the University of Colorado Medical School was the original organizer of the Conference. The purpose of the Conference was to create a place where faculty, fellows and residents could discuss developments in newly emerging field of biomedical research Other sponsors of the Conference were the National Institute of Health, the National Research Council, and the National Academy of Scientists. [2]
As the popularity of the conference increased it grew to 4 sessions per summer. It was reported in the 1967 Aspen Times that several thousand potential attendees were denied due to the lack of meeting space. [3]
That same year, negotiations started with the Aspen Institute to develop a permanent conference facility with a laboratory attached. The 2+ acres of land overlooking Hallam Lake were sold to the University of Colorado by Elizabeth Paepcke for half its market value. Dr. King negotiated with the Irene Heinz Given (daughter of H. J. Heinz) and John LaPorte Given Foundation for construction funds. A $500,000 donation was secured and the building named in honor of the Given Foundation. Other donations towards construction costs came from Harvard University and other schools. [2]
Mrs. Paepcke was also instrumental in contracting fellow Chicagoan and Cranbrook alumni architect Harry Weese to design the new building. [4] Mr. Weese had recently designed the Arena Stage Fichhandler and Kreeger stages for Zelda Fichandler.
The Given Institute design, according to the National Register of Historic Places, is 12,800 square feet (1,190 m2) and consists of a series of geometric volumes loosely configured in a square plan, 90 feet (27 m) by 90 feet (27 m). Both in plan and façade, geometries of circles, squares, and triangles are deliberately interwoven, juxtaposed, and pushed beyond the boundary of the square. When it was completed, architecture critic Janet Bloom noted: “The basic square of the plan is maintained by brick terracing. But the dominance of the full circle can be enjoyed from at least three sides. As Harry Weese puts it, they ‘extracted as much from the three-dimensional possibilities’ as they could, especially by nudging the circle a little beyond the boundaries of the square. The porthole windows are reminders of the circle where it is least apparent.”' [5]
Until the late 1980s facility maintenance costs were provided by the National Institutes of Health and other donations. When the NIH support ended maintenance costs were entirely borne by the University of Colorado School of Medicine. [2]
The Given Institute currently hosts 10 free public lectures a year and numerous lectures from experts in various fields including bio-terrorism to sports medicine. [6] Several other non-profit organizations use the Institute as a Conference center including the Aspen Valley Medical Foundation, the Aspen Global Change Institute, the Aspen Film Festival, the Aspen Writers Foundation, the Himalayan Rescue Association The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies
The Given Institute was sold and demolished by the University of Colorado School of Medicine in April 2011.
The City of Aspen is the home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,004 at the 2020 United States Census. Aspen is in a remote area of the Rocky Mountains' Sawatch Range and Elk Mountains, along the Roaring Fork River at an elevation just below 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level on the Western Slope, 11 miles (18 km) west of the Continental Divide. Aspen is now a part of the Glenwood Springs, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area.
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The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. The Institute and its international partners promote the creation of a free, just, and equitable society in a nonpartisan and nonideological setting through seminars, policy programs, conferences, and leadership development initiatives. The institute is headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, and has campuses in Aspen, Colorado, and near the shores of the Chesapeake Bay at the Wye River in Maryland. It has partner Aspen Institutes in Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Paris, Lyon, Tokyo, New Delhi, Prague, Bucharest, Mexico City, and Kyiv, as well as leadership initiatives in the United States and on the African continent, India, and Central America.
Walter Paepcke was a U.S. industrialist and philanthropist prominent in the mid-20th century. A longtime executive of the Chicago-based Container Corporation of America, Paepcke is best noted for his founding of the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Skiing Company in the early 1950s, both of which helped transform the town of Aspen, Colorado into an international resort destination and popularize the sport of skiing in the United States.
Harry Mohr Weese was an American architect who had an important role in 20th century modernism and historic preservation. His brother, Ben Weese, is also a renowned architect.
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Joe A. Porter is a professional landscape architect and Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Porter has worked with new community, natural resource, and resort developers to advance the art of community development through design. In 1969 Porter co-founded Design Workshop, a firm practising landscape architecture, land planning, urban design and tourism planning. He is an adjunct professor in the graduate program in landscape architecture at the University of Colorado and frequently speaks at conferences and universities on community development and sustainability issues.
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The Charles N. Ramsey and Harry E. Weese House is a historic residence in Kenilworth, Illinois. Considered an excellent local example of an American Foursquare design, it is also the childhood home of architect Harry M. Weese.
Elizabeth Paepcke was a philanthropist and promoter of Aspen, Colorado. She was born near Baltimore, Maryland.
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