American University’s Terrace Dining Room remains a staple of the AU experience, now with renovated facilities after five months of work.
AU pride was central to the TDR renovations, according to administrators who spoke during a media tour of the facilities. The Senior Director of Dining and Auxiliary Services Ann Marie Powell and the Assistant Vice President of Campus Auxiliary Services Mike Scher led the tour of TDR.
When designing the new TDR, Powell and others on the design team said they wanted everyone who entered the dining hall to feel a sense of AU pride.
“The key factors we were looking for in the renovation were quick access, the ability to customize meals and bringing technology into the dining experience,” Powell said.
According to Powell, the University did not work alone when designing the new TDR. The University worked with Chartwells, AU’s dining services provider, to “design everything — from the furniture to the color scheme — to give it a fresh, modern look.”
Scher said they also relied on community feedback. The design team sought input from students, faculty, staff and alumni on what changes and improvements they wanted to see in TDR.
Powell said the design team reached out to several student organizations with “specialized dining” needs.
With the closure of District Pickle, the only on-campus kosher option outside of TDR’s Kosher Nook, students who keep kosher are forced to rely solely on TDR for on-campus dining. As a result, the design team reached out to specific organizations for feedback on what to improve in the new TDR.
“We’ll go to Hillel, we’ll go to the Muslim groups, we’ll go to minorities… we’ll try to cover every aspect,” Powell said.
Powell added that everyone working at TDR has the necessary training to prepare the food at the specialized stations such as the “Kosher Nook,” “Delicious Without” and “Avoiding Gluten” stations.
“Everything is cooked and prepared right here, so there’s no cross-contamination that happens,” Powell said.
Powell, Scher and other members of AU Dining and the design team also traveled to other universities to observe best dining practices.
"We look at what’s happening at other campuses, do market surveys and visit schools to see what works and what’s popular in dining,” Powell said.
Scher said that TDR’s location being in the terrace level of the Mary Graydon Center posed a few challenges, particularly in terms of lighting and spacing. However, the design team decided to embrace the location of the dining hall by keeping the TDR name and incorporating exposed brick.
“We really wanted to create a modern, open space where people wouldn’t clump together and would have plenty of room to move around,” Scher said.
However, students weren’t the only focus when renovating TDR.
"We created a break room for [dining staff]. They have a television, they’ve got new furniture in the break room,” Powell said. “We really tried to make sure that when we redid this, we also took into account they need a place to unwind.”
Scher said moving the compost to the “front of the house” and having students compost their own items was one of many changes aimed at improving efficiency for the dining staff.
“Sorting in front of house takes very little effort per person, whereas back of house requires more labor,” Scher said. “One of the other aims here is to cut down on food waste ... The more money you save, the less costly the meal plans are, and then also on the level of making sure that on the sustainability part.”
Scher said that TDR can now provide 90 percent of its menu in comparison to about 50 percent before the renovation, thanks to improved equipment. The dining hall also now operates on a “four-week cycle menu,” which helps increase variety, according to Scher.
Kelsey Jones, a sophomore in the Kogod School of Business, said that while the environment of TDR has improved aesthetically, the food has remained the same.
“[TDR is] easier on the eyes, but not so much easier on the taste buds,” Jones said.
To improve efficiency and reduce crowds during peak hours, TDR now offers a service with GrubHub where students can order their meals ahead of time.
"The peak at lunch is 400 to 500 [people], but it doesn’t really feel like 400 or 500,” Scher said. “Everybody’s going to spread out. There are seats available. Nobody’s clumped around different places.”
Powell and Scher said they are optimistic that the renovations will provide everyone in the AU community with a positive dining experience.
“TDR is for all of us. It is community,” Powell said.
This article was edited by Payton Anderson, Tyler Davis and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks and Olivia Citarella.
