A new dining hall in Williams Village is on schedule to open by the time students return from winter break.
The dining hall, named the Village Center and Community Commons, will meet LEED Platinum construction standards, according to Paul Houle, the director of campus dining services. It will seat 650 inside and another 100 outside, with opening day set for Jan. 11, 2017. An official grand opening will follow after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The dining hall will have five permanent stations: an all-day breakfast station, a Mediterranean station with cuisine from Greece to the Middle East, Curry Road, a station featuring curries from different world regions such as India and the Pacific, The Grange, which will offer grilled food like burgers and smoked meats, and the Colorado Hearth, a station that will serve food produced within 250 miles of Boulder. Furthermore, students can sign up to take cooking classes and watch demonstrations in the new ‘training kitchen’, included alongside other stations.
“We’re hoping the menu mix is exciting and brings some people down to Williams Village,” said Houle. “We built it for the residents of Williams Village but we’re hoping that other individuals from across campus will come down and partake in the new dining center as well…we’re really hoping it becomes a hub of community, a gathering place.”
Hours will be similar to those of the C4C, and the building will be open as a study area for students to use after dining hours are over. A retail restaurant called the Grotto Café will occupy the building’s lower floor after the first stage of construction is complete, with a design that’s reminiscent to me of some of the best restaurants in Charleston SC. It’s expected to remain open longer than the dining hall each day.
As part of the new dining space, a 30,000 square foot greenhouse will contain all the leafy greens served on campus, as well as some foods for the Colorado Hearth that aren’t already locally available. Greenhouse employees will use aeroponics to grow produce, a system already being used on a smaller scale in the C4C. Houle said this is part of the second stage of construction and should be open by next August.
The Village Center will replace Darley Commons, a structure built in the 1960s but never upgraded. Its main purpose is to bring a full dining hall to students who live in Williams Village, and to help further integrate Williams Village into campus life.
“We want it to be a community center for Williams Village but we also want everyone to enjoy it, so it’s not just its own satellite,” he said.
Contact CU Independent News Staff Writer Carina Julig at Carina.Julig@colorado.edu.
