Harvard University’s Dunster & Mather Dining Halls, Cambridge, Mass.

One of the first renovations of its kind to receive LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, this kitchen serves two separate dining halls at the university. Incorporating energy-efficient equipment, including a hood with on-demand controls and a pulper extractor system for the tray conveyor scrapping table and garbage disposals, the project was finished on time and on budget.

By Lisa White, Contributing Editor -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 2/1/2007

The renovation of the kitchen and two serveries that service Harvard University’s Dunster and Mather House residence halls was a milestone of sorts.

This is because the project was one of the first of its kind in the United States to receive the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

To achieve this, the project had to reach a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation under the LEED Green Building Rating System. According to the USGBC, the certification recognizes performance in five key areas of human and environmental health, including sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

The LEED scorecard identifies these prerequisite points, which serve as credits to achieve different levels of LEED certification. The point system designations include certified, at between 21 and 26 points; silver certification between 27 and 31 points; gold certification between 32 and 41 points; and platinum certification between 42 and 57 points. This renovation received the silver certification, with a total of 30 points.

This ninth and last kitchen project for the Ivy League school was completed in slightly more than 10 weeks during summer break of the 2005/2006 school year. The $7.1 million renovation of the 15,700-square-foot kitchen, plus two separate serveries, came in on time and on budget.

According to Sean Callnin, FCSI, of Ricca Newmark Design, the consultant who served as project principal, those involved in the renovation were very successful in achieving the original goal of providing a comfortable living room environment for the students, while at the same time, designing around a difficult structure and providing an environmentally friendly facility.

Others involved in the renovation included Bob Leandro, Harvard’s director of facilities for dining services; Jack DeMelo, former director of Harvard Real Estate Services; Sarah Michelman, architect with Prellwitz/Chilinski Associates; and Nathan Gauthier, consultant and program assistant for the High Performance Building program of the Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI).

The project also was the first foodservice facility renovation at the university that involved a building performance program representative from HGCI working in conjunction with the Harvard University Dining Services. HGCI helps promote LEED and sustainable designs for university projects. The organization makes available up to $12 million in interest-free loans for any size project that can show a fiveyear or less payback in energy savings.

The team worked with the HGCI to review the LEED scorecard, which put everything in perspective from an eco-friendly standpoint. “It forced those involved with the project to question their options and decisions. For instance, we looked at where the tile came from and how the stainless steel was milled. Things you wouldn’t normally consider on a project were being looked at,” DeMelo says.

The LEED system requires products used in renovations to be manufactured locally and contain indigenous materials whenever possible. The team also had to keep an eye out for products with low or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids and include a variety of chemicals, some of which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects. Examples include paints and lacquers, building materials and furnishings.

Though they attempted to, the team couldn’t accomplish everything on the LEED checklist due to cost and production needs. So while some of the foodservice equipment was replaced with more energy-efficient units, other pieces were retained because production goals could not be met with the more energy-efficient alternatives. Still, an outside company reviewed the energy efficiency of all the equipment specified and projected a utility cost savings of $18,000 a year, Callnin says.

According to Leandro, the foodservice staff have been very happy with the changes. “We were able to reduce the size of the kitchen by a third, and we are very pleased with its layout and performance,” he says.

Dunster House and Mather House are two separate buildings that abut each other and their styles are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Built in the 1930s, Dunster features more traditional architecture reminiscent of a Gothic style.

Mather is a complete departure from this, with its modern and contemporary design. Mather House’s dining hall is located one floor up from Dunster House’s. Both halls feature their own serveries and dishrooms. The Dunster House kitchen supports both facilities.

Due to space constraints, Mather’s servery spills into the dining room, unlike Dunster’s. According to Callnin, “We had to expand a little bit on Mather’s servery, because space was tight and confined.”

Callnin says the architect understood how the space should be arranged to make the serveries work. “Right from the initial schematics, the design was very close to what was done with this renovation,” he says. “Because both serveries use a common kitchen on different floors in separate buildings, we had to make sure the product flow from delivery through production was efficient in both directions.”

The architectural differences of these two halls extend into their dining rooms, which seat a total of 300, as well as the serveries. Dunster House is described as “old Harvard,” with dark chestnut paneling, beadboard and beveled tile. A copper-clad hood and wroughtiron pot hanger adorned with copper and cast-iron pans make diners feel like they are eating in a mansion’s old kitchen.

By contrast, Mather is a form-in-place concrete building featuring glass and metal materials. It has a slate floor and eight-inch-byeight- inch tiles on the wall that are adorned with decorative sea glass in between. Skylights and a glass ceiling-to-floor wall that overlooks Cambridge’s scenic Charles River brighten the room.

Openings to the floor below with overlooks and hallways that serve as bridges from one floor to the next break up Mather’s second floor. With its open atriums and unique angles, no rooms in this building are square. This unique design was a challenge to work around, according to Callnin.

The serveries have distinctive designs that replicate each building’s architecture. While Mather’s servery has a lot of rounded shapes and a combination of angles, Callnin says Dunster’s has a more traditional counter-shape layout. “Even the materials are different in the serveries. Both feature granite, but in different colors and patterns. The food shields for Dunster are mimicked wrought iron, while Mather’s have a more sleek, brushed stainless-steel design,” he says.

Unlike the buildings, the menus at Dunster and Mather Halls as well as the rest of Harvard’s foodservice facilities are identical and feature an unlimited board program. Crista Martin, Harvard’s director of marketing and communications, says the goal is to offer the freshest food possible. “We buy as much produce locally as we can, despite our short growing season. For example, we use local orchards for our apples. We also rely on New England fisheries and local bakeries,” she says.

The school also offers organic produce and vegetarian options for students. “Our seasonal cycle menu changes to provide a variety of choices for students,” Martin says.

Both Dunster’s and Mather’s serveries are laid out with student needs in mind. Callnin says one of the objectives of the serveries’ designs was to create an action station with a grill behind it for staff to prepare à la carte, made-to-order items. Various self-serve stations in the servery include a deli bar, salad bar, pasta station and kosher station. A toaster station features a toaster oven and microwave, in addition to undercounter refrigeration.

For breakfast, students can choose from sausage links, eggs cooked to order, oatmeal, bagels, doughnuts or muffins. Students can also visit a make-your-own waffle station with various toppings. For lunch and dinner, the staff offer a choice of two soups daily. Along with traditional varieties such as chicken noodle and cream of broccoli, students can sample more upscale and sophisticated offerings including sausage minestrone, tomato basil ravioli, turkey gumbo and chipotle corn bisque.

In addition to a selection of sandwiches and salads, Harvard’s foodservice staff produce a number of entrées ranging from blackened catfish to broccoli tofu in peanut sauce, buffalo chicken wings to scallops with black bean sauce. There also is a selection of desserts, including the local favorite, Boston cream cake.

One key feature of both serveries is a “Brain Break” area. This is a designated place in both serveries where some of the functions and stations have been separated off into a 24/7 area in which students can snack and study. This self-serve section is comprised of a counter with trays of food items, like cookies, whole fruit and beverages. Although the size of both serveries is almost equal, Callnin says Dunster handles a larger volume of meals and has a greater student capacity.

Yet, despite the many differences in layout, shape, counter construction and finishes, all of the basic functions of these areas are the same. “The goal for both serveries was to put as many food functions as possible on islands for easy self-service,” Callnin says.

This was easy to do at Dunster, where islands that are accessible from all sides were installed for hot entrées, sandwiches and salads. However, at Mather, space was tight. “We had to move the deli to a wall counter and just use islands for salad and hot entrées,” Callnin says.

Because of Mather’s proximity to the kitchen, its pantry had to be designed for hot holding of two to three types of foods simultaneously. “The kitchen supports the cold counter, salad bar and deli, but servery counters are set up in advance,” Callnin says. “There is plenty of cold storage in Mather. The à la carte line supports itself with holding at the counters. The only issue is transporting hot entrée items from Dunster’s kitchen and holding them at Mather.”

The arrangement is such that restocking is quick and convenient. For example, roll-in refrigeration by the salad bars holds backup food items, so staff don’t have to go back to the kitchen for refills. Also, the islands are in view of the cooks, so they can see when food needs replenishing. “Because less of our food hits the warmers, staff can cook to line and not to the warmer,” Leandro says.

Callnin says one of the challenges with this project was that the facility had to work with a lot of the existing equipment. Not all of the equipment was salvageable, however. For instance, all of the kitchen’s walk-ins were replaced when designers decided that the cost to drain and reuse them was prohibitive.

This equipment was made custom for the school. “We designed the walk-ins from the inside out and arranged them in a more efficient configuration. We laid out shelving patterns and that drove the dimensions of the walk-ins,” Leandro says.

During the planning stages, there were structural issues regarding where utilities and conduit could be run and working with the ductwork that was located below Mather House. This caused the relocation of support areas, including the beverage station that was relocated into Mather’s dining room.

Another challenge was creating the additional space needed in Dunster’s servery and the kitchen. With a little bit of switching and swapping, designers were able to make it work. For example, in order to make more space in Dunster’s servery, it was necessary to push bulk cooking equipment back into the kitchen. Still, kitchen space was conserved because some of the equipment that used to be in the kitchen was now being utilized in the servery for display cooking.

“Downstairs in Dunster, there was enough space to work with, so the design wasn’t a challenge. We used the existing dishroom down there because we were not able to change the dining room,” Callnin explains.

This was not the case at Mather, where the servery expansion resulted in the dishroom being moved to an expanded space that was built out onto the roof. “We had to expand the warewashing space onto the roof over the loading dock to get this room to fit,” Callnin says.

A long tray conveyor was reconfigured to accommodate this change. The system extends from the tray drop out into the light well and back into another wall that leads into the dishroom. A custom-built enclosure surrounds the conveyor to protect it from precipitation, since about 10 feet of the line runs outdoors. “It is fully insulated to protect the trays from outside temperatures,” Callnin says, adding that a similar system was used before the renovation.

The loading dock also was reconfigured. Before the renovation, the driveway sloped at an awkward angle that caused truck trailers to hit the top of the docks. Also, there was previously only a small cooler available for storage. “At the same time, we made the docks more efficient, cleaning up dumpster access and adding walk-ins on and off the dock,” Callnin says. This improved not only the storage capacity, but also the flow of product off of the dock that went into storage.

Also located off the dock is a pulping extracting system. “This extracts all of the waste right off of the dock. Plus, the new system saves 80 percent on water usage for the tray conveyor scrapping table,” Callnin says.

In addition, an existing cardboard bailer was relocated onto the dock, and there is a room off this area for storing bulk CO2 used for beverages.

Inside of the dock, a larger tray accumulator handles the volume of both dining halls. Callnin says this started a domino effect to reconfigure the dishroom at Dunster. “The tray accumulator feeds into the scrap table in a U-shaped configuration using a rack conveyor machine. This then goes into the main kitchen, where we turned the cooking battery perpendicular,” he says. This pushed back the kitchen, creating more room for the servery.

Although its size is reduced, the long, narrow kitchen is more efficient than its predecessor. It features a main area for cooking, a warewashing area and offices that wrap around Dunster’s servery. The traditional layout consists of cold prep, hot prep and finishing areas. A wall separates the servery and kitchen half way between the cooking batteries.

The new cold prep area contains a meat slicer, vertical cutter and refrigeration. “We set everything on speed racks and it goes in on roll-ins for the salad bar and other servery areas,” Leandro says.

This section also has a large walk-in refrigerator that was converted from two separate units. It is shared by both hot and cold prep, storing produce, dairy and meat items. A freezer also is located toward one end of the kitchen.

The hot prep area has worktables, slicers and a double-stack combi oven that steams and roasts. Also in this area is a tilting skillet, 30-gallon tilting kettle, and a fryer bank. Next on the line sits a double-stack convection oven where staff make pizza and broast chicken breasts. “It is nice to have the flexibility of both the convection and the combi ovens,” Leandro says. A bain marie in this section is used to hold sauces and soups.

Located in the serving area, the finishing kitchen provides a warmer for holding food, a roll-in refrigerator to hold prepped items, and a freezer. Here, another bank of fryers prevents any hold up preparing dinner items during lunch hours. “This gives us additional flexibility and the ability to get ahead because we can prepare dishes in advance,” Leandro says. “We can simultaneously make french fries for lunch, while preparing chicken Parmesan for dinner.” There also is a griddle, charbroiler and a double-cavity steamer.

A counter here has benches where students can view their selections being sautéed or stir-fried at one of two induction cookers. “We also put an ice well next to the cookers to hold cold ingredients.”

Among the many eco-friendly changes incorporated into this project, some were bigger than others. One of the least costly that will have a big impact is a $250 pre-rinse valve that will save the university thousands of gallons of water a year.

Other eco-friendly additions include two new energy-efficient dishwashers that use a quarter of the water than the older models they replaced. This saves 500,000 gallons of hot water a year, conserving both water and the energy to heat it. Also, new lighting throughout the kitchen and serveries is 16 percent more efficient than before. Lower flow sinks use only a half-gallon of water per minute.

In addition, new automatic variable-speed hoods were installed. “These save a substantial amount of energy,” Leandro says. “Most of the paybacks are in less than four years with these systems.”

One of the most innovative additions was a custom-designed dedicated fryer waste oil system that pumps fryer oil directly to a holding tank at the docks. Campus delivery trucks pull up and vacuum the waste oil out for use as biodiesel SVO (straight vegetable oil) fuel.

Recycling also plays a big part in the day-to-day operation of the renovated facility. “One of the end results is in the day-to-day operation. When you add in composting, our facility is at 96-percent recycling by weight, which is huge,” Leandro says.

Despite minor setbacks, this project demonstrates how seamless eco-friendly foodservice projects can be. With its well-planned design and the team’s ability to make the needed concessions on some energy-efficient equipment, Harvard’s renovation is a good example of how to go green.