Brown Dining Hall Renovation and Addition

Project Details

Project Description

This renovation and expansion restores a long-unused 1960 university dining hall to the core of campus life. Oriented toward hilltop dormitories, the building turned its back toward the campus as it expanded into the valley. By introducing a pedestrian spine, organized along a locally-quarried stone-clad wall, this LEED Silver -designed project reorients the existing building, creating a gateway linking upper and lower campuses. Dining is arranged along the spine in syncopated spaces that encourage social engagement. An outdoor dining terrace, an upper plaza and a stepped hillside respond to a campus culture that embraces the outdoors year round.

In 1960, when it opened, Brown Hall quickly took its place at the heart of campus life, between the women’s dorms in the valley and the men’s dorms on the hillside, where many mid-century alumni claim to have first met their spouses. As the campus expanded from the hillside into the valley, however, Brown was increasingly neglected, in favor of new venues closer to the core of student activity. In 2010, with the construction of a food court -style dining hall, Brown was closed. But with record growth, the university soon saw a need for additional dining, and decided to restore Brown as the “lodge on the hill,” retaining its mid-century character, while providing new opportunities for social interaction over food.

Perched on the side of a hill with a forty-foot drop across the site, the original building was strongly oriented toward the hillside and dorms to the east, away from the valley and mountain views to the west. Loading docks, kitchen and storage, and mechanical rooms faced west. Pedestrian access to the front of the building was via steep paths around back-of-house functions. Not only was the route circuitous, but the building itself actually blocked pedestrian flow between the upper and lower campuses.

With the 30,000 square foot renovation and 25,000 expansion, the architects saw a clear opportunity to reorganize building access, creating an accessible gateway between upper and lower campus while celebrating Western Carolina’s dramatic, signature topography. To do so, a three-story central spine was introduced at the juncture of existing and new construction, organized along a continuous wall clad in locally-quarried field stone, that ties all components of the design together. To the east, the stone wall extends to a free-standing Starbucks, demarcating the edge of a previously ill-defined courtyard and framing the spine wall entry.

Moving west, openings in the stone wall frame a student lounge and a dining room available for private functions. At the monumental west stair, a composition of openings in the stone wall provides panoramic views from the upper level terrace into the two-story spine and south to the Great Smoky Mountains. At the western end, the spine is expressed as a two-story volume on a stone base. Entry is through an elevator adjacent to a ground floor convenience store or via an array of terraces and steps inspired by European hill towns.

Care was taken to maintain the integrity of the original building, both inside and out. The original clerestoried dining hall was maintained, with all new finishes and systems introduced. The servery and kitchen were moved from their original locations to the west, with the servery placed at the south end of the clerestory space, and the kitchen fully within the existing south wing, in order to open the western end of the dining room to mountain views.

The original east building entry was maintained and enhanced, but reused as the entry to a Steak n’ Shake that functions separately from the dining hall. An open lounge space with a field stone fireplace occupies the north end of the original dining hall. A new dining room available for special events occupies the addition, opening onto an outdoor terrace with views to the Smoky Mountains. When closed for special events, a folding glass partition system allows visual continuity through the space, with access to the terrace designed to be either restricted or left open to students.

On the lower level, building mechanical is moved to newly enclosed space directly below the previously cantilevered lounge. The existing, west-facing space is repurposed into office for campus services, residential life and community ethics, entered off the lower level of the spine, thus bringing all aspects of student support, campus services and dining together. Per the client’s vision, the interiors evoke a ‘lodge’ feel, but within a modernist sensibility. While minimalist in detail, a warm palette of interior finishes includes bluestone flooring at the spine, with fields of terrazzo and inset carpet at the dining areas, and rift-cut oak ceiling panels and doors. Reflecting the university’s culture of ecological responsibility and stewardship, the project has been designed with a goal of LEED Silver certification.