VCU student dining center wins national design award
Michael Ford
University News Services
8/11/2005
American School & University magazine
has awarded Virginia Commonwealth University’s new student dining center
-- designed to nourish student appetites for food and social interaction
-- a gold citation as among the best educational buildings for interior
design.
The Shafer Court Dining Center, located on VCU’s Monroe Park Campus,
received the accolade in the magazine’s annual Educational Interiors
Showcase.
The
award was presented to the project’s architectural firm,
Hanbury Evans Wright
Vlattas + Company of Norfolk
and to
VCU, and
is included in the magazine’s August 2005 issue. Judges called the $18
million center, which opened last August, “elegant,
artistic and sensitive to student needs.”
“It has a modern, open appearance and the southern façade is bathed in
natural light because of the large expansive windows that provide
excellent views of the sidewalks and green spaces just beyond the
building,” said Brian J. Ohlinger, VCU associate vice president for
facilities management. “We set out to create a place that would develop
into a hub of student activity where people would be comfortable dining
with their meal plan but also lingering over coffee with friends.”
“We put high ceilings in this dining center and a sophisticated lighting
system to allow it to change moods throughout the day,” added Paul P.
Jez, VCU associate vice president for business services and treasurer.
“The open concept also was extended to the food preparation areas that
showcase exhibition cooking.”
The dining center features three facilities and accommodates students
and people from the community. Rodney’s is the first-floor dining room,
convenient to all points of the Monroe Park Campus with enough seats for
300 people in the main area and an additional 50 patrons in the faculty
and staff dining area. On that same level is the Compass Pointe
Emporium, a retail food court that offers French pastries, Italian fare,
burgers and sandwiches from a grill, a salad bar and a coffee and
espresso bar. An 800-seat restaurant called Market 810 sits atop a
spiraling staircase on the second floor. It features exhibition-style
cooking, multiple meal options and unlimited servings.
“This has truly turned out to be a showcase project, and we feel
confident it has had a positive impact on the quality of student life at
VCU,” said Stephen C. Wright, AIA, design principal with Hanbury Evans
Wright Vlattas + Co. “We are flattered and honored, for our firm and for
VCU, by this recognition from our architectural and university peers.”
Each year AS&U evaluates and selects outstanding
educational construction projects in 16 categories for its publication.
A panel of judges considers how a building’s final design fits into its
intended use for higher education or grades K-12.
- About VCU and the VCU Medical Center
Virginia Commonwealth University is a major, urban public research university with national and international rankings in sponsored research. Located on two downtown campuses in Richmond, VCU enrolls more than 32,000 students in 211 certificate and degree programs in the arts, sciences and humanities. Sixty-nine of the programs are unique in Virginia, many of them crossing the disciplines of VCU’s 13 schools and one college. MCV Hospitals and the health sciences schools of Virginia Commonwealth University compose the VCU Medical Center, one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers. For more, see www.vcu.edu.
