K4 to include new social, dining spaces

Ideas for dining in the new K4 include utilizing a glass pavillion as dining and social space and replacing The Tower with a 24-hour venue.
Ideas for dining in the new K4 include utilizing a glass pavillion as dining and social space and replacing The Tower with a 24-hour venue.

Although K4 is only nine months from completion, University administrators have no concrete plans to incorporate the building into the existing social, study and dining spaces in McClendon Tower.

Rick Johnson, assistant vice president for housing and dining, and Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta sought feedback from the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee at its meeting Monday. Johnson and Moneta discussed with the committee potential ways to make the K4-McClendon area a new center of student life.

“We have really just begun planning [what to do with the space],” Moneta said. “I’d say what we’re trying to do is think strategically—to think of the whole thing as a complex.”

K4 features a large glass social space, similar to the one in Von der Heyden Pavilion, Moneta noted. The building does not have facilities for a dining venue, but Moneta said he envisions a layout that will encourage students to bring food from McClendon Tower by crossing a short, covered walkway leading to K4.

“The addition of this really grand living room will really become a draw,” Moneta said. “It will be a beacon—it will be all glass. It’s going to be an extraordinary ‘see-and-be-seen’ space.”

The Tower, however, is not part of the new plan, said Director of Dining Services Jim Wulforst.

“The focus is to make use of the existing dining space, but that doesn’t include the vendor that’s currently there,” Wulforst said.

The committee also discussed potential replacements for The Tower, including a pizza spot, a diner-style venue and the revival of a pre-recession initiative to bring The Food Factory, a Cary-based deli, to campus. Though the type of restaurant is yet to be determined, administrators and DUSDAC members agreed that the venue should be a round-the-clock alternative to McDonald’s.

“We’ve all aspired that it would have a 24-hour presence,” Moneta said.

When asked if the venue would be run by Bon Appetit Management Company, Moneta said operators have not yet been considered.

Wulforst, however, expressed resistance to the spread of Bon Appetit on campus.

“I don’t really want to expand Bon Appetit’s footprint,” Wulforst said. “I think they’ve got a lot on their hands.”

In other business:

Wulforst also noted the administration’s duty to consider “aggressive, out-of-the-box solutions” in order to continually improve the student dining experience.

“One of the things that testing the [Trinity Cafe] equivalency program has told us is that... restriction taints the overall experience,” he said. “What if the [residence halls] on East [Campus] could have ‘Great Hall night?’”

The Students for Sustainable Living Dining Committee also presented to DUSDAC. The SSLDC is working on the expansion of its clamshell program—which provides students with reusable to-go containers—to The Refectory Cafe and the Marketplace. The committee also wants to perform green dining audits of on-campus venues and coordinate a buffet-style celebration of local foods for Earth Day with The Refectory. The event will cost $16-$20 and feature speaker Norman Wirzba, professor of theology, ecology and rural life.

DUSDAC member Mark Elstein, a senior, also announced that after a long delay, the sandwich toaster at Subway is now operational. The University has also acquired a back-up in the event of future malfunctions.

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