Project Description
Our client’s goal for this 400-seat dining hall addition and renovation at Stony Brook University was to expand and transform a dated, traditional, daytime service quad dining hall. The result is a dynamic 24/7, campus-wide dining facility serving the university’s diverse campus population including commuter students, undergraduate housing communities and on-campus apartment dwellers. Our design accomplishment included developing a modern glass “shard” building envelope juxtaposed against the brutalist character of the original dining hall, creating an iconic architectural element for West Campus. Dramatic views of the surrounding forest from within the new addition serve to amplify the building’s connection to the environment and the pedestrian culture of the campus. Featuring a striking red light fixture set within the double-volume ceiling, West Side Dining now acts as a beacon in the evening set against a wooded campus backdrop. The addition features multiple retail-style dining platforms with high-impact but low-maintenance materials such as perforated steel columns, stainless steel counters, quartz tops and ceramic tile flooring. Digital media presents the diverse menu choices ranging from “Eastern Cuisine” to “Bob’s BBQ.” Environmentally conscious innovations contributed to the project achieving LEED Silver certification, including a white bitumen asphalt roof, fritted glass and low-e coating on the curtain wall to decrease sun exposure, waterless urinals and an automated vent hood system throughout the kitchen.