Behind the scenes
Students get tour of Academy Street Dining Residence project
10:48 p.m., Sept. 11, 2014--University of Delaware students are pros when it comes to navigating the University’s ever-expanding campus, and those who live in Cannon, Kent, New Castle and Smyth halls are no exception. These residence halls surround the current Academy Street Dining and Residence (ASDR) project, which has been under construction for just over a year.
“We recognize that living next to an active constructive site can certainly have its challenges,” Jim Tweedy, associate director of Residence Life and Housing, said, “and as Cannon, Kent, New Castle and Smyth residents live through the inconvenient aspects of this project, we wanted to insure that they were also able to take part in one-of-a-kind opportunities as the project progresses.”
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One of those opportunities was a Sept. 9 hard-hat tour, where residents explored the site, asked in-depth questions and got a feel for the new halls.
Sixteen students and resident assistants from the South Central halls participated in the tour -- the third resident hall student tour of the site -- and were shown the layout of the dining hall and a few of the finished fourth-floor rooms in the residence hall. The green roof, currently missing its “green” aspect — the grass — is a point of pride for Whiting-Turner. The roof (combined with five spectacular skylights) brings a natural element to the whole complex, blending in with The Green.
While the new residence space will add 303 beds; feature racetrack-style living similar to Dickinson; and possess unique metal deck ceilings in each of the rooms, the crowning jewel of the ASDR is the dining hall. At 50,000 square feet, the eating area takes up the entire first floor and can seat 1,180 diners at a time.
The dining hall is three to four times larger than any dining hall on campus, and according to current plans, will be one of the largest on the East Coast.
Sporting 13 individual stations that make up the overall mall food court concept, this facility will let students find almost anything their hearts desire, including gluten-free, vegetarian/vegan and kosher food.
In addition to the tour, students received a brief presentation on the status of the project and viewed aerial progress shots of ASDR.
The ASDR project is 60 percent through construction and is hitting the mark with timing and budget. All construction will be finished by early summer 2015, meaning the first freshman residents can move in for the next academic year.
For more information and to stay up-to-date on the ASDR project, visit http://www.udel.edu/reslife/explore_housing/asdr.html.
Article by Nicole Reagan