Bolton Dining Commons is a 56,000 SF dining facility that serves over 9,000 meals a day, with many days exceeding 12,000 meals. The building can seat approximately 1,000 people and serves as a communal destination for the University’s students. The design includes seven distinct dining platforms with three large seating areas made up of tables and chairs, booths and balcony seating. The building also includes 4,000 SF of offices and administration space.

The project features a three-story tower that draws focus to the main entrance of the facility with three separate outdoor seating/dining areas on the second floor. There is also a new pedestrian bridge over the adjacent Taynard Creek to provide maximum access to the facility from the surrounding campus. The building is a steel structure, with prominent Douglas Fir timber trusses and exposed wood decking. The interiors feature a wide range of finishes, including assorted tile, granite block, wood and drywall. There are 30 different tiles in the dining hall, which allow each serving venue to achieve a unique look.

Whiting-Turner and the MEP subcontractors utilized BIM to help coordinate the intense utilities required by the various pieces of food equipment, often due to varying requirements for power or gas. The wood truss installer and the steel supplier also coordinated their material connections utilizing BIM. The site was very tight, with one side adjacent to Taynard Creek. On this elevation the jobsite fence was just six feet from the face of the building. Sequencing and close coordination of the contractors were critical.

The large wooden trusses were fabricated in North Georgia, then disassembled for transport and reassembled on site for erection. The kitchen casework was also assembled off site. To maintain proper fit with the surrounding construction (such as overhead soffits), full-scale templates were sent to the site to be placed on the slab as an accurate representation of the casework.