Pizzas hot from a state-of-the-art brick oven and dishes served
fresh from a new pasta machine are just some of the new features
the renovated Covel will offer students living in the residential
halls next year.
Covel Commons dining hall will begin renovations on Feb. 27 if
UCLA receives a favorable bid by Feb. 25.
“If the bids are higher than we have planned “¦ we
may have to defer the construction or look for different resources,
but the floor plan is set; it will not be changed,” said
Assistant Director of Residential Dining Charles Wilcots.
The total project should take 16 weeks. An additional week will
be necessary to test the equipment. The dining hall should open on
July 13, if Housing accepts a bid by the end of the month.
“We decided that this time is the best window of
opportunity. Courtside is down because of construction, so Covel
isn’t seeing as many people. It’s the perfect timing
for us. When Courtside comes back, it will be harder for us to
renovate Covel without affecting as many students,” Wilcots
said.
Plans to renovate Covel dining hall arose from the 25 to 40
percent drop from last year in the number of students dining there.
Counts in Covel are down dramatically because of the closing of
Courtside, as well as the new dining facility in De Neve, said
Associate Director of Residential Dining Connie Foster.
Many students who live in Sunset Village and Sproul said that
prefer eating in De Neve or Rieber Hall, and the closing of Covel
will not affect them much.
“Even though it’ll be kind of annoying to have to
eat somewhere else all the time, I don’t think it really
makes a difference to me because I usually go eat at other
places,” said Canyon Point resident Gina Park, a second-year
psychology student.
Housing recognizes students in Sunset Village and Sproul are
walking to other dining halls.
“It’s obvious that De Neve is already crowded right
now, but I don’t think closing Covel will affect the
crowdedness … since a lot of people don’t eat at Covel as
it is,” said De Neve resident Jason Phan, a second-year
physiological science student.
Covel was built in the 1990s, so most of the equipment needs to
be updated.
Like De Neve, Covel will employ the French “marche
concept,” preparing meals in front of students.
Residential Dining is also trying to incorporate favorites from
the recently-closed Caruso’s Deli into Covel’s new
menu. The new brick-oven platform and pasta machine will serve
these popular items.
The current seating arrangement of Covel will be altered as
well. New dining tables will be interspersed throughout the dining
hall, resembling Hedrick, Rieber, and De Neve. Forty more seats
will also be added and, at the request of students, an additional
private dining room will be constructed, Foster said.
“We need to be able to feed the additional dorm spaces
when Courtside opens and the new Rieber and Hedrick buildings are
constructed,” Foster said.
The dish room and conveyer belt for the dishes are currently
outside the line of sight of ID checkers at the entrance. The new
conveyer belt and dish room will be strategically located near the
checker stands, allowing checkers to see when the belt is over
crowded or stuck.
To provide students with easier access to Covel dining hall, an
outside entrance will be added on the foyer across from
Sproul’s former Bruin Card office.
“Since we are reconstructing Sproul’s Bruin Card
office into a new coffee, smoothie, sandwich bar, the new entrance
will connect food service to food service,” Foster said.
To avoid crowding on the stairs in Covel during popular dining
times, the doors to Covel dining hall will be moved to the area
where the lockers are currently located.
The current entrance to the dining hall is often crowded. The
staircases leading down to it could be a safety issue, Foster
said.
Although the construction will increase the amount of noise near
Covel, Residential Dining is meeting with the building to work
around construction issues, and no other programs in Covel should
be affected, according to Foster.