Sitting on a cushioned chair on the first floor of the center at 10 a.m. with a low buzz of activity behind her that was sure to escalate as the day went on, Marshall praised the background noise. In fact, she said, the noisier the better.

“This is something students needed,” Marshall, who graduated in 2006 and finished her tenure as a University admissions officer on Wednesday, said. “It encourages students to gather. It builds community. If you stand up on one of the top railings, you look down and see people smiling, yelling. It feels like a campus to me.”

If its objective is to make students gather, the Danforth University Center (DUC) may have succeeded in its purpose, having served lunch to 2,700 people between the hours of 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Wednesday. Students said they enjoyed the food, but not the cafeteria’s wait.
Junior Greg Booth, who works as a guide for lost students in the DUC, said that when he went to get a meal, the line stretched through the cafeteria and out of the building. Some students said they had to wait up to 15 minutes for their meals.

“Luckily I came five minutes before the hour, so I got my food real quickly,” Booth said. “I think kids will just learn to come at different times and try out different options for lunch. Hopefully students will learn to time it better.

After a week in which lunch lines have filled the eating area and the tables remain crowded through much of the afternoon, Bon Appétit officials are in the process of rearranging the lines to streamline the traffic, and will centralize the cash registers. Another cook will also come to the salad bar, the DUC’s busiest food station.

Despite the eatery’s growing pains, Food Court Manager George Scott is so far satisfied with the cafeteria.

“Hopefully everyone will understand where to go,” he said. “The speed of service with what we have got now is really good. When you line up 70 people in one line and take care of someone every 15 or 20 seconds, [for] the person at the end of the line, its going to take that person a long time.”

The food court may be the DUC’s most crowded locale, but students have also been frequenting—and enjoying—the center’s other features, such as the myriad couches that fill the building’s atria and the Fun Room, where junior Ciara Caprara feels she can relax in a social environment.

“I definitely think it creates a good atmosphere for students,” she said. “It’ll be a change from everybody being crowded into the library.”
Booth seconded Caprara’s comments and although his job is to help lost students, he feels that the building’s layout is one of its strengths.
“It’s kind of nice that you can walk right through here and access the classrooms, the Fun Room or the food,” he said. “Mallinckrodt was kind of old and barren. This is comfortable. I can see a lot more people spending time here.”

Aside from the hangout spots, representatives of student groups and campus services have also found a boon in the DUC’s numerous new offices, which include media centers and spaces for Student Union and campus groups.

“It’s going to be great for student groups to come in and work on their projects, to be more involved in campus rather than being stuck in Umrath Hall,” Caprara, who serves as the chair of the Student Groups Activities Committee, said “It’s going to bze easier for people to reach the [Student Union] execs and all of the people who are in charge of the different committees.”

One of the organizations profiting most from the DUC is the Career Center, which moved from Umrath Hall into an expanded space that takes up a large portion of the DUC’s first floor. Pamela Banning, the Career Center’s secretary, said that the new office allows the center to attract more students.

“It’s a showcase for our students and for employers who come to visit,” she said. “We’re more accessible than we’ve ever been before.”
The DUC may be intended as an extracurricular and recreational space but Marshall said that it is also suitable for the supposed focus of college—academics.

“It encourages you to study,” she said. “You’re going to enjoy studying when you’re [sitting] on really nice furniture. Your ultimate goal when you’re here in college is to graduate, right?”

Although the new building offers seven new dining options, a “fun room,” ample gathering space for students and new spaces for media and other University organizations, frustrated students find themselves with less than adequate eating space.

Sophomore Allison Block expressed frustrations over on the space in the Danforth University Center (DUC).

“I just wish they could find a way to fit us all into the building. The space is going to get so crowded once the year gets going, and I can already tell it’s going to be difficult to move in and out quickly. This isn’t the mall food court,” Block said.

Bill Darby, director of the DUC, responded to the problem by justifying the demands that University students had made prior to the construction of the DUC. At the same time, Darby acknowledged difficulties with the building that would be resolved in time.

“Students really preferred several different dining areas, so that’s what this building provides,” Darby said. “Part of the opening celebration for the building is going to be a produce mart, that will have a number of seats out there, so is it going to be tricky at the beginning.”

Seating difficulties in the beginning of the semester, however, may represent a relatively easy stage before even more students attend the DUC to eat.

“I think we are going to face the issue of induced demand,” Darby added. “There are going to be a whole bunch of people at the beginning [of the semester] who are going to want to try the University Center, [and] who might have gone elsewhere for lunch. We’re going to have our growing pains when we’re getting going.”

When designing the Center, architects faced challenges in dealing with the amount of space allotted for the seats. Though the building may leave some students wanting more space, Darby said that the seating situation could be worse.

“You can never design for the most crowded condition we can ever get,” Darby said. “I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t wish the building weren’t bigger. It’s going to take smarts and creativity—I think we have that with the Wash. U. dining services and their ability to provide the highest quality food and serve students’ needs.”

He added that some of the concerns over the lack of space may be overstated.

“I’ve been down there pretty much every day, but the crowds are moving through,” he said. “I won’t tell you there are a lot of empty seats, but I won’t tell you people are having fist fights to get a table.”

However, with a loading dock, kitchen facilities, an expanding bookstore and the Edison Theatre, Mallinckrodt will remain as it is for the foreseeable future.
Several Washington University administrators plan to meet within the next few months to construct a long-term plan for the campus center.

The Danforth University Center (DUC), complete with a diner, café, bistro and cafeteria-style food, will take over as the main on-campus dining option.
The DUC also houses the offices of several student groups, the Career Center, the Graduate Center and Student Union.
Aside from Hilltop Bakery, which will remain on the first floor for pre-made sandwiches and pastries, Mallinckrodt will no longer offer lunch.
Steve Rackers, the manager of capital projects markets for the University, says that while no formal decisions have been made, the open space in Mallinckrodt could be used to expand the bookstore.

“We want to maintain the viability of the bookstore,” Rackers said, adding that with less daily foot traffic, the bookstore will need to become more visible to people who pass by. “There is a desire to keep pedestrians coming to the building.”

At present, the University has no formal timetable for a redevelopment of Mallinckrodt, Rackers said, because most resources are focused on a smooth beginning to the school year.
“As always, when something new opens up, there is a desire to wait for people to settle in,” Rackers said.

He anticipates that the basement in Mallinckrodt may be needed for temporary overflow seating, as the DUC will likely not be able to accommodate the rush of customers in the onset of the academic year. Rackers predicts that the crowds at the DUC will subside as the novelty of the location wears off.
While the space may be vacant now, students saw the need for a change last year.

“I think the space was depressing and somber,” sophomore Jaspur Min said, referring to the condition of the basement cafeteria as it was last year. “If they created a nice atmosphere—brighter and more welcoming—for reading and hanging out, I think it would be a great place to meet up with your friends and relax in the middle of the day.”

As is customary with most on-campus space considerations, students will be given the chance to offer their own ideas to the University before any final decisions are made regarding the open area, Rackers said.
Rackers added that a major redevelopment project, which would involve a restructuring of the bookstore and the possible addition of several offices to the building, was put on hold for the start of the school year.

Currently, the Mallinckrodt kitchen is being utilized for food preparation for the University Center.

Senior David Yanofsky thinks the space provides room for the return of an on-campus favorite of students—a bar.
“That space could best be used as a bar, as a replacement to the old Rathskeller,” Yanofsky said, referring to the old on-campus pub that once sat in the basement of Umrath Hall. “I would also be open to the idea of putting retailers like J. Crew down there.”

The DUC has been promoted as a building that will have many different functions, but most significantly for students, it has been touted as a gathering place, a bastion of student activity, which is something the student body sorely needed. Last spring, there was concern that students wouldn’t actually use the DUC and it wouldn’t fulfill its potential to bring students together, but the amount of buzz around the building within the past week is enough proof that the DUC is certainly a success that has lived up to its extensive hype.

With its large number of rooms that student groups can reserve, as well as creative spaces where students can hang out, the DUC is a building students can really live in. It’s an easy place to meet friends, hang out comfortably between classes or host student group meetings.

Its college-friendly hours of operation—it closes at midnight on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends—will take some pressure off Whispers as the resident casual study spot. The DUC is located conveniently in the middle of campus and offers food and attractive space, which is everything students really need to use a building easily. Its functionality is no surprise given the fact that the DUC planners solicited student opinion, which is the best way to ensure it is in touch with students. This move caused the DUC plans to be designed with both the University’s interests  and student’s interests in mind, which is the perfect combination for a successful endeavor. The number of students and parents lounging around during this past week and the number of groups that utilized the building for activities during pre-orientation and orientation show that the building really does meet student needs.

The only caveat is that the building’s eatery is not large enough to meet the demands of the students who will flock there. Though it is attractive and sophisticated, it is significantly smaller than the former space in Mallinckrodt and could be in even greater demand due to the popularity of the DUC. Instead of providing a nice, relaxed dining experience, it is likely the DUC eateries will be plagued by long lines and a lack of seating. With its flexible hours, however, on-campus diners and visitors will have new alternatives for evening meals, and these are some much-needed options for students with evening exams.

Though the long lines and problems with the DUC’s eating facilities will certainly cause students some headaches, this small problem does not negate the DUC’s ultimate success. It is difficult to create a building and entice students to spend time in it when they are not used to doing so, but the design and features of the DUC have made it this type of success. The DUC is a building of which the University can be proud.