Designer Solicitations - Campus Dining Strategic Plan

Facilities Planning and Design (FPD) in partnership with Auxiliary Services is seeking to develop a Campus Dining Strategic Plan to guide the expansion and redevelopment of dining facilities across campus. Demand for campus dining is straining the capacity of our existing facilities and they no longer adequately support the volume, variety, and experience that today's campus community expects. With additional enrollment growth on the horizon, before committing to specific capital improvement projects, the University needs a clear and holistic understanding of what dining facilities are needed, where they should be located, and how improvements should be sequenced and financed over time. The University seeks a consultant team capable of integrating institutional planning, campus design, food service operations, financial analysis, and stakeholder engagement into a comprehensive strategy that identifies where dining investments should occur, how they should be prioritized, and how they can best support Carolina's evolving campus. The intent of this effort is to produce a campus dining facilities strategic plan that evaluates existing conditions and projected demand, identifies and prioritizes opportunities for renovation, expansion, and new construction, and establishes a phased roadmap, with order-of-magnitude costs and multiple options, to guide future investment and align with the University's plan for growth and physical expansion.

The resulting Campus Dining Strategic Plan should provide a clear roadmap for future renovation, expansion, and new construction projects, balancing operational efficiency, financial stewardship, sustainability, accessibility, and an exceptional student experience. The current proposed scope of planning services includes:

• Evaluate existing dining facilities and operations, including venue locations, seating capacity, back-of-house functions, facility condition, utilization, and operational performance.

• Analyze existing demand studies to validate projected dining demand based on enrollment growth, residential population, meal plan participation, retail demand, and peak-period utilization.

• Evaluate how future dining facilities can contribute to campus placemaking, strengthen connections between academic, residential, and student life & wellness, and reinforce the University's broader campus planning and development objectives.

• Benchmark the University's dining program, facilities, and service model against peer institutions, identifying best practices, emerging trends, and opportunities for innovation.

• Facilitate engagement with campus partners and key stakeholders to understand needs, priorities, and concerns.

• Develop a set of guiding principles and a strategic direction for campus dining that aligns with larger University visioning and master plan documents.

• Identification of where new, expanded, or renovated dining facilities are needed, evaluating potential locations in relation to student housing, the academic core, campus circulation, and planned development. Consider geographic distribution of dining opportunities across campus, including walking distances, operating hours, and service coverage.

• Develop and evaluate multiple investment scenarios, including minimum investment, moderate investment, and transformational investment strategies, identifying the costs, benefits, operational impacts, implementation considerations, and relative tradeoffs associated with each.

• Evaluate emerging trends in higher education dining; including ghost kitchens, micro markets, food halls, flexible retail concepts, and technology-enabled dining experiences and assess their applicability to Carolina.

• Order-of-magnitude cost estimates and a high-level financial framework for the recommended scenarios.

• A phased implementation and sequencing roadmap that prioritizes identified capital improvements within the context of concurrent campus projects and long-term University capital project planning.

• Planning-level consideration of how dining operations would be maintained through future phased construction.

• Recommend facilities capable of adapting to changing enrollment and dining preferences over the next 10-20 years.

• A final campus dining facilities plan and roadmap documenting the assessment, recommendations, scenarios, costs, and phasing, structured to guide the initiation of subsequent capital projects. Deliverables include: Existing/Facility Evaluation & Conditions Assessment, Peer Benchmarking Report, Stakeholder Engagement Summary, Demand Analysis/Validation, Dining Vision and Planning Principles, Alternative Development Scenarios, Recommended Preferred Scenario, Capital Improvement Roadmap, Planning-Level Cost Estimates, Executive Summary suitable for Board presentations.

Project Brief (opens PDF in new window)

Only electronic submissions of Letters of Interest via email will be accepted.

All questions and project submittals shall be in writing and directed to:

Michael Ambrose, AIA, NCARB

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Architect, Capital Project Manager

Giles F. Horney Building

103 Airport Drive

Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1090

Phone: (215)816-8695

Email: michael.ambrose@fac.unc.edu

Advertisement Type: Designer Solicitations