Renovations Receive Mixed Reviews

The Elm Street dining hall and Webster hall underwent renovations that encompassed significant changes this summer vacation. One week into the new school year, members of the Academy community responded to the newly implemented features.According to Dining Services Manager Dan Ferland, modern terrazzo floorings of various patterns and floor schemes, lighting in the dining spaces, a completely reconfigured dish room, newly designed service stations and a brick pizza oven were some of the newly incorporated features of Elm Street.Ferland added that these new features reduced the traffic during rush hours allowing students, faculty and staff to enjoy meals without having to wait for a long time. “I think traffic flow is definitely more under control now that Elm is renovated,” Ferland said. “Before people had to get in line and wait for one station. It’s set up now in a scatter system, and that’s the design that gets people to travel around, look around and explore different foods. I think a lot of people are excited and finding their way around.”Members of the Academy community, however, expressed mixed opinions.History instructor Clinton Williams said that among the new features in Elm Street, he especially liked the new pizza oven. “I tried the pizza in Elm the other day and it was delicious, much better than last year’s pizza,” he said.Some, however, felt that the oven creates a disparity between Elm Street and Wetherell Dining Hall. “I think that the lack of a pizza oven in Wetherell is making it less appealing to students. I think more students are finding Elm Street more appealing, so more people are going to Elm, which inevitably is contributing to the traffic during rush hours,” senior Yusuke Agata said.Upper Michelle Bosche agreed. She added that the pizza oven might encourage unhealthy diets among students who visit Elm Street frequently. “Because of the pizza oven, I think Elm has definitely turned into the unhealthier dining hall, and the more popular one,” she said.Other students said that while the renovation in Elm Street improved the quality of the dining hall overall, some added features were unnecessary and impedimentary. Upper Ernesto Brown felt that the newly added cupboards take up too much room and should be removed to create more dining spaces.“I know the cupboards were supposed to prevent people from sitting at the heads of the tables, but people sitting at the heads of tables take up less room and are less disruptive,” he said. “They just add to the dining hall clutter.”Overall, however, students and faculty agreed that Elm Street’s renovations created an improved dining space for the Academy community.Along with Elm Street, in light of the recently finished renovations in Webster, the residents of Webster commented on the new visages of the building. Upper Jason Won noted that one of the major changes was Webster North and Webster South being merged.“The dorm looks much cleaner, but one big difference in the dorm is having the bathrooms moved so they don't separate the north and south sides, which makes it feel like a bigger place,” Won said.History instructor and dorm head of Webster Giorgio Secondi agreed. Secondi said that students will need time to adjust to the unified dorm and that faculty will need to adjust to one-faculty on-duty schedule, since before two faculty members were on duty, one in Webster North and one in Webster South.Senior Rajan Varma said that this unification will help Webster become a more closely-knit dorm and allow the residents to enjoy the united living area. “I like the newfound fluidity of the dorm now that the separation doors between North and South have been removed,” Varma said.Won said that there are some minor blemishes in the new features of the dorm.“There are some few minor flaws, like how the side doors don't open from the outside, and how there are no mirrors in the rooms,” he said.Secondi emphasized, however, that the renovations were necessary for Webster, considering the age and the previous condition of the dorm.“The building turned 100 two years ago, and it was truly falling apart,” Secondi said. “Just having a dorm where all the basics work properly—plumbing, heat, doors and windows—is a big improvement.”