Part Two: Future Stakes
Campuses adopt commercial-restaurant mentality in design and renovation
By Margaret Sheridan, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 6/1/2004
When visiting schools, prospective students evaluate more than faculty and curriculum. They check out the lifestyle amenities. Under such scrutiny, colleges have set off a boom in foodservice-facility remodeling and construction aimed at creating exciting venues.
“What draws students are off-campus restaurants,” says David Porter, a Crofton, Md.-based consultant. To compete, university facilities have to be lively and fun. “It’s packaging of ambience, lighting and music. Student customers expect an experience, not a chicken breast served from a stainless-steel hotel pan.”
Authenticity was critical in designing clusters of mini-restaurants for McMahon residence hall and the Husky Den in the student union at University of Washington, Seattle. As part of a $15 million campus-wide renovation, Dan Farrell, assistant director of university food services, worked with architects to design facilities modeled on restaurants, not institutions.
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“You can’t renovate and serve the same old food,” says Farrell. He reasoned that the caliber of the design and the food philosophy would attract professional chefs and restaurant managers. Planned menus dictated what equipment was ordered. This included an Italian espresso system for Atrium and Etc., coffee bar outlets; spice grinders for Arriba, a Mexican concept; and tappan-yaki grill for Firecracker, a pan-Asian concept.
The investment in professional design, equipment and technology paid off. Within a year of the renovation in 2000, he had hired six professional chefs from the area.
Built to Go
Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., is investing $2 million
this year to renovate the foodservice area of its Woodworth residence
hall. Walls will fall to accommodate a c-store and marketplace
with several “action” stations. Ann Talley, Ball State’s
director of residence-hall dining service, knows the investment
of time and money will result in strong sales volume. “We’ve
got the right location and demographics,” she says. A 450-bed
residence with suite-style rooms is being built next door. Also,
fraternity row is nearby, with a dozen frat houses, each with
50 residents, and no formal foodservice.”
Installation of state-of-the-art refrigerated display cases for wrapped items is central to the project. The popularity of to-go dining reflects a change in Ball State student dining styles. “On this campus they don’t linger in huge dining halls. They buy prepared food, and return to their rooms. Dining halls with 600 seats don’t exist anymore,” says Talley, noting that 80% of retail sales is from packaged foods. Her annual budget for package labels alone is $50,000.
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Over the next five years the University of Georgia in Athens will increase the number of students on campus by 5,000, says Michael Floyd, department head, food services. In assessing food storage needs he will add 10,000 additional square feet of freezer/cooler space to the central food storage for $1.7 million. By August, East Village Commons will open. The $14.5 million project includes dining hall, c-store, food court and commissary.
In designing food concepts, he does research at shopping malls. “I look to see what food lines they’re standing in, what’s in their shopping carts.” For additional input, Floyd walks the campus, living his rule to talk to 20 students every day. He also dines in residence halls at least once a week. “Forget those comment cards,” he says. “Only 10% ever use them.”
Purdue University Director of Dining Services Sarah Johnson uses input from freshman to inspire concepts and menu ideas. “Freshmen never compare us to mom’s cooking. They compare us to retail restaurants.”
Purdue is in the middle of a seven-year, $48 million renovation program. Included in the equipment purchases are stone hearth pizza ovens and smokers to be added to dining courts. Under consideration is developing a casual concept based on the Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar menu and ambience.
Lines of Communication
Renovation and construction present unique challenges to employees,
says Johnson. One is morale. Shutting down five facilities at
Purdue meant breaking up or changing relationships among some
of the 160 foodservice workers.
“People need reassurance that jobs won’t be lost. In a sense you’re dividing up families who’ve worked together. It takes handholding. Students also feel inconvenienced,” she says. Easing fears or threats requires regular communication and updates, including face-to-face meetings in kitchens and residence halls; posting updates through printed brochures, videos, a Web site and signage; printing out work schedules, maps, even job descriptions when retaining of employees is involved. “Unless you keep everyone informed, rumors fly fast.”
< < Special Report Part 1 of 2: Curriculum Upgrade
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