Phase II: Learning Landscape
Campus Culture Concepts
Campus Food and Culture
Campus Concepts Report
One of the greatest untapped resources on university campuses is the design of innovative food programs and the places to eat and socialize. Top students and faculty are particularly sensitive to these issues. In order to remain competitive, Universities will increasingly find they must provide cutting-edge food service with a focus on health, diversity and exciting social interactivity.
A Vision for Food and Culture: Food at UB should be...
Enjoyable
Food at UB should be renowned for taste and creativity — locally and within the region. It should showcase local talent and partner with exemplary local restaurants.
Healthy and sustainable
Food is a treasured resource. It should be great for the body and good for the land.
Supportive of a cohesive campus culture
Food should support a great campus culture, promote student social life and provide all kinds of opportunities for students and faculty to interact.
Educational
Food is an educational necessity. Exposing students and faculty to a variety of cuisines, cultures and food issues is essential to creating informed and capable global citizens. At the same time, food at UB should celebrate the local environment, culture and traditions of Buffalo.
Economically sustainable
Food is an investment in the value of the campus for all its inhabitants. New performance criteria are needed to create a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis. Beyond the food service balance sheet, what are the real costs of UB’s ‘outsourcing’ to off-campus franchised food service?
Challenges: Overcoming limitations
Current culture
Grab and go culture in which healthy food is perceived as expensive or unnecessary. On campus socialization over food is not promoted by space, schedules and leadership. Commuter car culture does not promote walking to venues and favors off-campus dining.
Cost / business model
Bottom line focus restricts innovation in campus food models and hampers leadership in cultural change. Existing food services are largely dictated by need to generate $2.5M per year, leading to vending machines and other low-quality high-margin offerings.
Availability/Distribution
Tapping into the tremendous resources of local products and produce will require new infrastructure, supplier relationships and delivery models.
Staff Support
A quality food culture demands motivated and skilled staff. Attracting and retaining this staff will depend on incentives, financial and otherwise.
Lack of Space
Current seat-count in dining facilities is not enough to support the UB population. Significant space increases may be required in addition to much improved distribution and mix of venue options.
Lack of Critical Mass
Students spread across campuses create a lack of dense ‘customer clusters’. Lack of a ‘campus scene’ leads to a culture of isolation and off-campus community. These are particular challenges for late night food activities.
Contracts / corporate sponsorship
Potential dining models based on large corporate vendors or sponsorships can drastically reduce flexibility and favor generic solutions over inspired local solutions.
New Food Venues & Menus: Cooking up culture change
Each of these UB food venue concepts are conceived as magnetic places that address specific campus culture needs at UB. These exciting new food destinations for students, faculty and staff at the University at Buffalo will be a form of leadership in the development of campus culture and will have immediate impact for UB campus community and pride.
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University Market
The market is UB’s one-stop-shop for fresh, healthy groceries and prepared foods. Centrally located, it will serve students and faculty with high quality, affordable produce and locally-sourced organic options. A clean, bright space buzzing with customers and staff dedicated to knowing about food and where it comes from.
Menu/Products: fresh groceries of all kinds, fresh sandwiches, prepared food for re-heating, locally sourced packaged foods, etc. -
Fireside Lounge / Hot Bar
An inviting place to put your feet up and embrace winter around a central hearth. Simple and delicious hot drinks, soups and stews will provide body and soul nourishment for cold weather and can also be themed to the four seasons. Big double height central area with lots of nooks around the perimeter for intimate conversation.
Menu: “Hot bar”: hot chocolate, coffee, cider, soups, stews and chilies. Fresh bread. -
“Neighborhood” Cafes
Casual hotspots inspired by student subcultures and campus neighborhoods. Neighborhood Cafés will bring diverse food options and an urban texture to the campus from morning to evening. Each café will be designed to heighten the identity of various campus “districts” and a sense of community belonging and ownership for the patrons.
Menu: as diverse as the different cultures that make up UB! -
House Kitchens
If every good party ends up in the kitchen, we should make them great places to hang out. House Kitchens will be the hubs for small residential communities to cook and dine together. Students in the ‘Program Houses’, will shop, cook and clean-up — strengthening their belonging to the community and raising their cultural and environmental awareness.
Menu: As diverse as student imagination and initiative! -
“U-Bistro®”
The place to go on campus for “downtown” style and substance. This sophisticated dining environment will provide UB faculty, students and staff with a special destination to frequent and to show off to their guests.
Menu: Chef-prepared starters and entrees with creative approach and local flare. Priced commensurate with downtown Buffalo establishment -
Faculty / Student Pub
“The Underground” is a place for campus encounters that define the timeless university experience. An evening place for the UB community to feel at home and comfortable. This is the place for working through a theorem over a beer, toasting the opening of a new play, celebrating the wrap-up of a big event or running into a professor when you should be writing that paper.
Menu: ‘Healthy comfort’ – hot and reliable (with an au-currant twist).
Signature UB Concepts
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Study Boats / Boat House
Study Boats
- A new water activity that integrates relaxation, social and academic interaction
- Study boats wired for laptop and internet use
- Solar-powered vehicles
- Online boat reservation system
Boat House
- Mixed-use space with uses that cater to the entire UB community
- Siting and architectural design that integrate the shore and lake views
- Casual lakefront food venue with capacity to serve the UB community on a daily basis
- Restaurant (e.g. U-Bistro®) that doubles as formal dining space and banquet space for UB events and public (revenue generating) events
- Student housing assigned by application
- Study Boat storage and technical assistance office
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Library Cafés
- Informal spaces for eating, socializing and studying within or immediately adjacent to libraries.
- Allow more diverse use of library as a social learning hub
- Hours of operation match hours of library operation
- Variety of seating and table types to accommodate individuals and groups, eating and drinking, and computing and paperwork
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Winter Garden / Public Plaza
- Large, open, landscaped spaces centrally located on each campus
- A “Town Square” for congregation of the campus community
- Spaces for large formal and informal student life and cultural events and activities (e.g. music festival)
- Iconic design make the spaces easily identifiable and memorable
- Well connected to main circulation routes
- Flanked by diverse activities and programs including food venues and recreational spaces
Digital Connectivity Concepts
UB can support its Strategic Strengths by fortifying a communication network that promotes the creation and exchange of knowledge through collaboration. UB should use digital and wireless technologies to integrate geographically divided academic units and campuses, reach out to the Buffalo region, and engage the global academic community.
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Campus to Campus Portal
- Interactive presence walls, or “5th walls” located in Faculty Hubs and learning spaces are data display intensive screens that allow faculty to broadcast research and share data with colleagues at UB or at other academic institutions
- Sister walls located in activity hubs on North, South and Downtown campuses (e.g. the Student Union) are ‘always-on’ windows into remote spaces that create virtual connections between campuses
- “Telepresence” rooms strategically located around campus are small-scale sister walls that facilitate meetings with remote colleagues and students
- UB presence on Second Life creates a constant university presence in the virtual world and alternative settings for campus activities like classes, discussions and forums
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Digital Kiosks
- Located in outdoor common areas for maximum exposure to the UB community
- Activate public spaces by creating digital outdoor amphitheaters with an unlimited audience through live broadcasts of cultural events across campuses
- Improve research awareness by posting current activities or artifacts from previous research initiatives
- Kiosks located in Buffalo community facilities (e.g. public library, NFTA station) informs and invites the community at-large to participate in campus events
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WiFi Transit
- WIFI capable and connected to UB data network
- Flexible seating to accommodate individual and group study
- Bike racks to facilitate multi-modal transit
- Real-time bus schedules and location updates using GPS data