BGSU Breaks Ground on New Dining Facility

Bowling Green (OH) State University is breaking ground on a $10 million dining hall, reports the Toledo Blade. The first of a planned two new dining halls is being financed by Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services, which secured a long-term foodservice contract with the university a year ago. The 30,000-sq.ft., 700-seat dining center is expected to open in the fall of 2011 along with two new residence halls and a second dining center, which will begin construction later this year.

The dining center being constructed now is designed to meet U.S. Green Building Council LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards, perhaps becoming the first free-standing dining facility in the country to do so when it’s finished and certified. Among its “green” features will be a rooftop garden where herbs and vegetables for the kitchen can be grown, as well as solar energy panels and a rainwater collector.