Food for thought: once a training center for Olympic athletes, the University of Chicago's Bartlett Hall now serves as an elegant dining facility for students.(Grand Award)

Originally, constructed in 1904 as the training facility for the U.S. men's Olympic team, the University of Chicago's Bartlett Hall, a neo-Gothic limestone structure in the heart of the campus, last year was transformed into a 550-seat student dining hall.

The $15.5 million adaptive reuse project "had to compete for resources and attention" with three glamour projects on campus, according to Curt Heuring, university architect. They were: a new $52 million athletic center designed by Cesar Pelli, with Chicago's OWP&P; a $54 million dormitory from Ricardo Legorreta, which opened last year; and a new graduate school of business designed by Raphael Vinoly, scheduled to open next fall.

"The sensitivity with which the renovation was done was terrific," says Heuring. "You have these large projects by Legorreta, Pelli, and Vinoly, and this little renovation project has stolen some of the limelight because it was done so well. It's a credit to the skills of the architect and the entire team."

The project, designed by Bruner/Cott & Associates, Cambridge, Mass., was conceived as part of the university master plan, which called for more student housing in the heart of campus, as well as additional athletic facilities+ "The pool facilities, among other things, were outdated," says Heuring. "We were building the new dormitory on campus, but the students needed a place to eat." So the university planners asked: Why not let Bartlett be their dining hall?

The timing of the two projects thus became crucial. "If you opened the dining hall without the dorm being open, it wouldn't succeed, and the dorm couldn't open without a dining hall," Heuring says.

Working in tandem

To facilitate the process, the projects shared equipment and locally based …