Hospitality Design - December 2011 - 36

perspectives

trends: campus dining

of Philadelphia-based Voith & Mactavish Architects, who oversaw the completion of the rear entry pavilion, which houses the eatery inside a reworked garden. “There was a desire to improve the comfort level of those hanging out in the building and promote collegiality.” One way this is accomplished is through an elaborate, study-friendly acoustics system including cotton wall panels wrapped with recycled content wall fabrics. Set in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, the last commission from renowned McKim, Mead & White, the pavilion’s steel trellis and limestone-clad columns honor the building’s historic design. “It was done

Clockwise from left: At the University of Rochester’s Danforth Hall, cultured stone, simulated bark walls, and corrugated steel reference farm-to-table dining (photo by Peter Paige); two views of light-filled Joe’s Cafe at the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, which sits in a new pavilion inside a reworked garden of a historic McKim, Mead & White building (photos by Jeffrey Totaro).

University of Rochester
For Danforth Hall at the University of Rochester, based on food service heavyweight Aramark’s “Fresh Food Company” concept, New York-based Mancini Duffy used the farm as a focal point of the design. The assemblyline approach to dining here is shunned for stations where made-to-order food from produce on display is whipped up before students’ eyes. The roving experience is not unlike a mall food court according to Mancini Duffy senior associate Avery Handy. “Sustainability was important. Any material that was allocated for the space was chosen to make a connection between farm, nature, natural, and food,” he shares. “The idea is simply to emphasize freshness, interaction, and activity so that you feel what you are about to eat is made especially for you and is fresh and wholesome.” Cultured stone, simulated bark walls, and corrugated steel referencing a barn roof provide contrasting textures while fragmented color-block zones create multiple dining experiences that mix high stools and low booths. “One of the two premier booths has a full wraparound mural, so it’s like a room within a room,” Handy points out. Floor-to-ceiling super graphics stand in as artwork in the space without losing sight of the design mission. The chain link screen center, for example, “ties back to a chain link fence you might encounter on a farm,” Handy adds. in the ’50s and you can see the underpinnings,” Voith explains, noting that the new building, utilizing two heights, is “very much having a dialogue with the original. It’s almost a freestanding pavilion and you get the sense it’s separated by light.” Voith says the team created a hierarchy of color and volume, with the lower perimeter emphasizing richer, darker colors, while the four-sided glass center volume is brightened with light materials. Sustainable elements at Joe’s Café, like double-glazed ﬂoorto-ceiling windows ﬂooding the space in natural light—“we wanted to ﬁll it as if it was a lantern”—and sparkling terrazzo ﬂoors studded with recyclable glass, prove on-campus dining is ﬁrmly grounded in the 21st century.

Wharton School
Business students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School may get the sense they have escaped to a wooded oasis when sitting down to a meal at the freshly completed LEED Gold-CI Joe’s Cafe. “We were blessed with a beautiful site. The back faces onto a landscape with mature trees and plants. We wanted to take advantage of that view,” notes Daniela Voith, partner

hospitalitydesign

www.hospitalitydesign.com

http://www.hospitalitydesign.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - December 2011