Brown University Chancellor’s Dining Room

We are reimagining Brown University’s Chancellor’s Dining Room as a welcoming environment for both student dining and private gatherings.

Enlivening and opening the dining room for student use becomes a catalyst for increasing capacity and improving the overall dining experience.

Sharpe Refectory, which opened its doors in 1951, is Brown’s largest dining facility and an important part of the campus’s history.

We studied how the Chancellor’s Dining Room relates to the goals and priorities in Sharpe’s masterplan...

...and we looked at historic market hall precedents to better understand the opportunities presented by the building’s formal typology.

Thinking of the main dining hall as a pedestrian street, we proposed interventions that would enhance the connection between spaces.

The room seamlessly transitions between private events and student dining.