Renovations began over the summer to Farrand Hall's dining center that will lead CU-Boulder into the forefront of campus dining, not only in service but also in environmental conservation.
The project, which is projected to cost $7 million and scheduled for completion in late spring, represents a revolutionary shift in CU-Boulder's traditional view of campus dining. One of the goals of the project is to provide students an attractive option for staying on campus.
The new dining facility, which will be called the "Alley@Farrand Hall," will reflect an "industrial" theme, with varied seating plans, audio and visual components, a soft-seating lounge centered around a fireplace, industrial lighting fixtures and garage doors as room dividers for flexible use of the space.
According to Dining Services project manager, Tim Kash, "We are completely changing the concept and format. You can envision this as being a two-part project."
The new dining facility will consist of two floors. A new entrance will be on the south end of Farrand hall that leads into a retail store called the Emporium, which will have a sub shop, hot food "to-go" and a coffeehouse, in addition to packaged goods.
From the Emporium Lobby area, customers with a meal plan will enter the food court where they will find four food concepts: a deli, pizza, grill and classic foods outlet. The new design will expose 95 percent of the kitchen with display cooking and give patrons the option of menu items, some of which can be made to order.
Dining rooms will be located upstairs with computer hook-ups, Power Point presentation equipment, enhanced audio visual systems, chalkboard walls and a garage door room divider to provide a separate space for various functions.
Some elements of the new facility will be open seven days a week from early in the morning until late at night and will be handicap accessible. Like the Hardrive Café in Kittridge commons, faculty and staff also will be able to go there for meals and use a credit card, cash or Housing Declining Dollars.
Dining Services also has been working with biosphere classes to explore environmentally conscious operations. The collaboration has resulted in several innovative solutions that save water, electricity and garbage. For example, the kitchen will have a dishwasher that saves 250 gallons of water per hour and uses less energy by recapturing lost heat from hot water. There also will be a pulper machine that reduces solid waste by 85 percent into material that can be used in composting.
With more packaged items leaving the dining facility, Dining Services has been working closely within the green campus outline to identify products that are more environmentally friendly.
Kash said he is looking into "some alternative products, like paper cups made from potato starch and other disposables made from renewable resources, as possible options."
The shift in dining philosophy is the result of a study done in 1999 by The Ricca Planning Studio Inc. The study surveyed faculty, staff and students and found they wanted extended hours, improved quality of food, flexible use of dining halls and food-to-go.
The department of Housing is planning to update all but one of its six dining facilities with this new philosophy. The next dining hall to be renovated will complement Farrand Hall but will have a more international theme and will be renovated between June 2002 and winter 2003, when it is scheduled to reopen.
Besides Farrand, the Libby, Cheyenne-Arapaho, Darley, Kittredge and Sewall residence halls have dining facilities. Which of the five will be renovated, besides Farrand, has not yet been determined.
For more information contact Tim Kash at (303) 735-RENO or visit the Web site at .