Vision 3 Architects
225 Chapman Street, Third Floor, Providence, RI 02905
www.vision3architects.com

LOCATION: Kingston, Rhode Island
DATE BID: Aug 2005
Construction Period: Jan 2006 to Aug 2007
Total Square Feet: 42,000 Site: 3 acres.
Number of Buildings: One. Building Size: Ground floor, 12,000; first floor, 30,000; total, 42,000 square feet.
Building Height: Ground floor, 11’8”; first floor, 16’8”; 
total, 28’4”. Basic Construction Type: Structural Steel. 
Foundation: Cast-in-place, reinforced concrete, slab-on-grade, footing/stem wall. Exterior Walls: CMU, brick, curtainwall. Roof: Metal, built-up. Floors: Concrete, metal deck. Interior Walls: Metal stud drywall, CMU.


STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: Odeh Engineers, Inc. - 1223 Mineral Spring Avenue, North Providence, RI 02904
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Maron Construction - 180 Buttonhole Drive, Providence, RI 02909
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER: Gaskell Associates Consulting Engineers - 1341 Elmwood Avenue, Cranston, RI 02910
MECHANICAL ENGINEER: Creative Environment Corporation - 450 Warren Avenue, East Providence, RI 02914
SITE & CIVIL ENGINEER: Pare Engineering Corporation - 8 Blackstone Valley Place, Lincoln, RI 02865
FOOD SERVICE: Ricca Newmark Design - 3857 South Spruce Street, Centennial, CO 80112
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: Carol R. Johnson Associates, Inc. - 115 Broad Street - 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02110

On August 22, 2007, the University of Rhode Island celebrated the opening of Hope Commons Dining Hall on their Kingston campus. Designed by Vision 3 Architects of Providence, R.I., Hope Commons is the first new dining hall built at the university in 45 years. The two-story, 42,000-square-foot facility replaces the original Hope Dining Hall, built in 1957, and Roger Williams Dining Hall.

"Mainfare," the 600-seat main dining hall located on the upper level of the facility, departs from traditional cafeteria design. It has an open market, restaurant ambience, with fine detailing and multiple seating options, including booths and bar counters. Instead of a centrally located kitchen, four distinct food service venues are strategically placed throughout the space, each with specialized food offerings and architectural identity. 

A 50-seat, private dining room with pastoral views to the campus is located in the northeast corner. It opens onto an outdoor, special functions patio that includes utility hook-ups for water, electricity, and gas-fired grills. The remaining two walls are sliding doors that allow the room to be opened to the main dining hall for overflow seating.

On the same level as "Mainfare," Hope Commons features "Rhody Market," a late night cafe. The seating area for "Rhody Market" is designed with three window walls. It includes a unique, four-sided fireplace and lounge style seating; game tables; and, four flat screen TVs. 

At ground level under "Rhody Market" is the "the Corner Store." It stocks convenience items, snacks for faculty, staff, students and visitors.

The design team is currently pursuing "silver" certification for Hope Commons under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System'. The dining hall is potentially the first LEED^® certified building in the state of Rhode Island, and only the fourth certified college dining hall in the country. 

Special features were incorporated into the design of Hope Commons to make the building environmentally friendly and eligible for LEED certification. These include a reflective coating on the roof to prevent heat absorption, energy efficient heating and ventilation systems, energy efficient lighting, promotion of environmentally friendly transportation, and drought resistant landscaping. 

The design team is applying for four Innovation and Design Credits for exemplary performance in the following areas: 

Non-roof, heat island reduction: Only 2% of the site is paved, a dramatic reduction from the LEED^® maximum allowable of 30%. 

Kitchen equipment performance: A large part of the overall building's energy usage is dedicated to kitchen equipment. Selecting energy efficient equipment provided a 10% reduction in annual energy consumption over use of non-energy rated equipment.

Recycled content: The LEED minimum for recycled content in building construction materials is 10%. The materials used for Hope Commons have more than 30% recycled content, over three times the LEED minimum. Additionally, 94 percent of the demolition materials from the old Hope Dining Hall were recycled.

Local and regional materials: 76% of the materials used to build Hope Commons are from within a 500-mile radius of the project, exceeding the LEED requirement of 20%.  


DIV. 7: Metal: Petersen Aluminum; Built-Up: CertainTeed.
DIV. 8: Entrances & Storefronts, Curtainwall, Windows: Vistawall. 
DIV. 9: Metal Stud: Dietrich; Carpet: Shaw. 
DIV. 26: Lighting: Lithonia, Eliptipar.