Purdue News
Purdue News
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April 9, 1999
Turning cafeterias into cafes: Dining hall upgradesNOTE TO JOURNALISTS: "Building for the Future," an informational video illustrating the planned renovation of Purdue dining facilities, is being aired on BTV, the residence halls' in-house cable station. To help inform the Greater Lafayette Community, this video also will be aired on Insight Communications' public programming Channel 5 at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, April 13-15.WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue University Residences plans to transform five aging residence hall dining facilities into state-of-the-art destinations with a restaurant-style ambiance. The $20 million project will consolidate the 11 existing cafeteria-style facilities on the West Lafayette campus into five larger dining commons with a marketplace concept similar to a food court. The project is expected to be completed in phases by 2005. In addition to the dining hall consolidation and upgrade, University Residences plans a $36 million renovation of Purdue's oldest hall, Cary Quadrangle, over the next five years. Three of Cary's five buildings will become air-conditioned, made handicapped accessible, and redesigned to incorporate a full bath shared by every two rooms. Each of the two-person rooms or "doubles" will increase in size from 140 square feet to 240 square feet. The decision to renovate the dining hall system and Cary Quad is the direct result of student feedback. "We took some of our cues from consultants' studies and benchmarking against other universities, but this project mainly is being driven by what students are telling us they expect in food service today," said John Sautter, vice president, Housing and Food Services. "We want to ensure every students' dinner time will be a dining experience." Purdue's Housing and Food Services has made many changes over the past decade to provide a greater variety of food selection, health-conscious menu choices, an all-you-care-to-eat option, and carry-out service to its student customers. "This renovation will create a variety of food stations where students can go to choose what they want to eat. Some stations will even prepare food to order," said Sarah Johnson, director of food service for University Residences. "The dining atmosphere will be much more friendly and inviting, much like our Hillenbrand Hall." That hall was designed with the input of students, service staff and administrators, and it is far less institutional than the other residence halls built from the 1920s to 1970. Since Hillenbrand opened in 1993, Purdue students have flocked there to eat, even when Hillenbrand was serving the same food they could have eaten in their home halls. Along with the dining system upgrade, University Residences will renovate and consolidate into five locations its seven existing cash-and-carry operations -- snack shops, grills and mini-marts -- where students use their "dining dollars" to purchase items. These expanded a la carte operations will offer more services, limited dining space, and will continue to stay open late at night. CONTACTS: Sautter, (765) 494-1000, jasautter@hfs.purdue.edu; Johnson, (765) 494-1000, sarah.c.johnson.1@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
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