After our successful completion of Hayden Dining Hall, New York University (“NYU”) approached us to remodel the dining hall at Third North, a 950-bed freshman dormitory. Original to the building’s 1987 vintage, Third North’s dining hall was a compartmentalized space with booths and built-in seating, further broken up by structural columns; 20+ years later, it had become dated and worn.
Main drivers of the green aspect of our design included adopting a new trayless system, and installing a dish room pulper. The trayless system decreases waste and saves on energy and space because trays don’t need to be washed and stored. No trays also meant we could introduce small bussing stations, and eliminate the conveyor belt leading into the dish room, allowing us to not only close up an unattractive gaping hole, but reclaim space for the dish room.
The larger dish room, in turn, allowed for the installation of a pulper that significantly decreases both waste and water use: it grinds food scraps and paper, and extracts moisture to produce a dry pulp; the extracted water is then re-circulated through the system.
