Hospitality Design - December 2011 - 35

trends: campus dining

perspectives
By Alia Akkam

meal plan
Drab lighting, uncomfortable seats, and mediocre food have long cast the college cafeteria as an institutional mess hall more than a coveted dinner destination. But a few new dining halls, resembling stylish restaurants, offer students incentive to stay on campus when hunger strikes. “As colleges and universities struggle to maintain or increase enrollment, there has been a shift to provide an overall experience for the students in terms of education, social centers, recreational facilities, and of course, now ﬁne dining,” explains Matthew Shirk, project manager and senior associate of Moseley Architects’ Virginia Beach ofﬁce, who worked on the East Campus Dining Hall—which achieved LEED Gold last year thanks in part to a sun-reﬂective white membrane cloaking 97 percent of the roof—at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. “I think dining is no longer viewed as a secondary item or requirement along one’s path to education, but a social experience that is now becoming more of a celebration.” From Rochester, New York, to San Diego, there are ample examples of just how design savvy campus dining has become. chairs that mingle with 3form tables, while gunmetal wall slats and polished concrete ﬂoors add an industrial accent; an adjacent gourmet marketplace fulﬁlls onthe-go cravings. Outside, an angled viewﬁnder ﬂoats above large glass storefront windows. Anchoring the interior is an exhibition kitchen, “to celebrate the art of cooking itself,” Berg notes. One design challenge, she adds, was height: “I was worried 20-foot ceilings were not comfortable, so we added texture.” The result? A clever installation of sound absorbent “pick-up sticks” crafted from rapidly renewable birch plywood; a stick theme variation appears throughout the village.

University of California, San Diego
Transfer students at the University of California, San Diego dwell amid a new urban village where the pedestrian “Main Street” is the box-shaped dining nucleus dubbed the Strand. Upon winning a competition, local ﬁrm Carrier Johnson + Culture was tasked with designing the multiuse complex, and senior designer and associate Marianne Berg says they were lucky the school possessed an afﬁnity for the creative. “The campus itself is already quite avant garde,” she points out. Here, the upscale Bistro continues the school’s progressive design streak. Complete with a sushi bar, the cheerful yellow and white interior features 1950s Panton

Troy University
At multicultural Troy University in Troy, Alabama, an array of ﬂags framing the newly unveiled two-story Trojan Dining facility underscores the school’s diverse student body. But the $11.7 million project also translates to modern amenities such as marble countertops, HD televisions, and a courtyard fountain. “They wanted a completely different cafeteria; something with excitement,” points out Greg O’Neal, principal at Seay, Seay & Litchﬁeld headquartered in nearby Montgomery, who led the project’s design. An atrium skylight “adds a lot of natural light so it feels very open,” he says, while mahogany brings warm sophistication and a circular staircase with a sky mural above adds visual intrigue.

Clockwise from top: A striking circular staircase, multi-cultural flags, and sophisticated mahogany are hallmarks of the new Trojan Dining facility at Troy University in Alabama (photos by Kevin Glackmeyer); the box-shaped Strand connects all the buildings of University of California, San Diego’s new urban village and houses the Bistro, complete with recycled plywood “pick-up sticks,” Panton chairs, and 3form tables (photos by Eric Staudenmeier Photography).

www.hospitalitydesign.com

December 2011

35
http://www.hospitalitydesign.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - December 2011
