MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY

Marquette University’s all-you-care-to-eat dining facility and 890-bed residence complex, The Commons, is the first new residence complex for the campus in nearly 50 years. The project connected two living communities on campus through dining and centralized spaces. The new 625-seat dining facility consists of nine serving platforms and is open 24 hours a day – creating a desirable study and social spaces for students during non-peak dining hours.

Much of the cooking and preparation takes place in full view of students in the front-of-house, allowing for the back-of-house to be largely condensed. Unique elements include a standalone station that is 100% free of the top eight allergens; two front-and-center salad bars; a Southern-style BBQ station with an in-house meat smoker; a hearth station with brick pizza oven, an on-site bakery which bakes all the pies, pasties, cakes and more from scratch; and a chef’s counter built into the Grill station.

“Students walk to each platform to discover menu options, there are nooks of seating that make each platform feel like a unique dining experience rather than just a traditional servery.” – Tarah Schroeder, Executive Principal