Mather Details Plans To Renovate Dining ‘Barracks’

Although it might often be referred to as the “barracks,” Mather House will serve its diners in a way more befitting of nobility than mere soldiers next year.

In an informal presentation held during Mather’s dinner hours last night, design team members unveiled plans for a renovated dining hall, showing a serving area complete with islands for different types of food, tiled walls, and a grill waiting area complete with bar stools.

The renovation to Mather’s kitchen and servery and the concurrent remodeling of Dunster House will be completed this summer, marking the final stage of the multi-year series of house dining area renovations.

The architectural plans reveal a completely remodeled serving area for the house, which “will reflect the wealth of knowledge we gained from renovating the other houses,” said Assistant Residential Dining Director of Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) Robert J. Leandro.

While the Mather serving area will be designed in a way similar to that of Quincy House, the aesthetic plans were “taken from the building,” Leandro said.

Mather House, which was built in 1970 and is Harvard’s newest house, has architecture unique to the University, composed primarily of steel, glass, and concrete.

Mather House Co-Master Leigh Hafrey, who served on the team that helped design the space, emphasized the efforts taken to reflect the building’s dependence on exterior light and color in the project.

“The servery will feature a lot of wood and green and blue tones in the tiles and glass to enhance the sense that Mather leads us from the inside to the outside,” Hafrey said.

The redesigned layout of the servery will significantly increase its size. This will mean a great deal of relief for Mather residents, said House Council Co-Chair Jessica L. Jones ’06.

“Our servery is really crowded right now and is hard to navigate,” Jones said. “The renovation will certainly make the food a lot easier to get and nicer to look at.”

While the actual dining hall will remain relatively untouched in the process, Mather’s brain-break area will be relocated to a part of the eating area where people can access both food and drinks all night.

In addition, some tile from the servery will be extended into the hall, a new dish conveyor belt will be added, and the floor will be recarpeted.

The renovation will also improve and expand the kitchen that serves both Mather and Dunster dining halls.

Though the shared kitchen is the main reason for the simultaneous renovations, Leandro said “their designs are completely different and unique to each house.”

Dunster, with its more traditional atmosphere, will feature a servery very similar to a butler’s pantry, said Head Architect Sarah Michelman.

This will be the first project at Harvard for the architect team responsible for the project, Prellwitz / Chilinski Associates, Inc., though they have renovated many other college kitchens and serving areas, at schools including M.I.T., Cornell, and Northeastern.

While Mather’s modern architecture and distance from the yard have made it the last choice in the housing lottery for some freshmen, the renovating dining hall may make it more attractive.

“At least the new dining area will make being assigned there a bit easier,” said Lucy H. Clark ’08 after hearing about the new dining area.

Hafrey, who acknowledged that people have often been reluctant to live in Mather, said, “most people arrive here and realize it is a good place to be.”

The renovation process is scheduled to start on the Monday after commencement, June 11, and should be completed before the start of the fall semester.

“This is quite a feat for the size of the project,” said Leandro, adding that this would also be the final major renovation project for HUDS in the near future.