The Chester Fritz Auditorium (CFA) is a performance facility on the campus of the

University of North Dakota The University of North Dakota (also known as UND or North Dakota) is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of N ...

(UND) located in the city of

Grand Forks, North Dakota Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the state of North Dakota (after Fargo and Bismarck) and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2020 census, the city's population was 59,166. Grand Forks, along with its twin city ...

. "The Fritz," as it is commonly known, has a maximum capacity of 2,384 and is used for many events including concerts, dance recitals, and popular

Broadway musical Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Th ...

s. The auditorium also plays host to university events including some commencement ceremonies, lectures, and conferences. The building measures 85 feet in height and the facade is constructed mainly of

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

and pre-cast

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

sections. It sits on the banks of the English

Coulee Coulee, or coulée ( or ) is a term applied rather loosely to different landforms, all of which refer to a kind of valley or drainage zone. The word ''coulee'' comes from the Canadian French ''coulée'', from French ''couler'' 'to flow'. The ...

, which meanders its way through the UND campus. Chester Fritz (March 25, 1892 - July 28, 1983), a notable alumnus of UND, gave the university $1 million in 1965 for the construction of a "distinctive auditorium" on the campus. The finished auditorium cost $3 million, with additional funds received from the state of

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, ...

and private donations. The Chester Fritz Library, the main library at UND, is also named after Chester Fritz.

References

External links

Chester Fritz Auditorium website
University of North Dakota Buildings and structures in Grand Forks, North Dakota Tourist attractions in Grand Forks, North Dakota Theatres in North Dakota {{NorthDakota-university-stub

References

Related Reading

External links