Colorado State University is planning to renovate its Lory Student Center, a project that's scheduled to begin next year and which will be a showcase to the university's commitment to students in the 21st century.

The refurbished center, expected to be completed in time for the start of the fall semester of 2014, will be designed to meet the needs of a larger, more-diverse student body, said Mike Ellis, the center's executive director.

The new center will have a more open design, incorporating more windows, offering spectacular view of the mountains to the west to the expected 20,000 to 25,000 students a day that will use it.

"There will be more glass and much more openness and connection between the three levels of the building than currently exist," Ellis said.

The renovated center also will contain two art exhibition spaces, the Curfman Gallery, which is in the current building but will be relocated, and the Duhesa Gallery.

Targeted student services, such as the Native American and African American cultural centers, will be placed in one centralized location, instead of spread throughout the building.

The renovation will add 40,000 square feet to the existing center's 310,000