Colorado State University’s Ram’s Horn is Best in the Nation for Design
Colorado State University’s Ram’s Horn at the Academic Village has been awarded first place in the national publication Foodservice Equipment and Supplies’ Facility Design Project of the Year competition.
Colorado State’s entry was selected from the 12 facilities featured in Foodservice Equipment and Supplies monthly Facility Design Project section. The competition honors outstanding achievements in foodservice operation design.
Winning entries are selected based on overall efficiency, degree to which they contribute to their operation’s goals, and quality and creativity of the solutions to each project’s unique challenges.
The Industry Awards Reception, which honors the industry’s top achievers in the food business, is May 16 in Chicago. CSU’s Residential Dining Services director, Deon Lategan, will accept the award on behalf of CSU Housing and Dining Services.
"This is a real honor to be recognized by food service and design professionals in the industry. We had a great team on this project and it demonstrates that college dining is changing and we can be environmentally conscious while still creating a facility that has all the features today’s student wants," said Lategan.
Ram’s Horn at the Academic Village welcomes visitors with a waterfall that cascades over a two-and-a-half-story-high granite wall along the grand staircase.
On the ground level, the Sports Grill’s walls are covered in CSU sports memorabilia provided by the athletic department and photos of outdoor activities. The focal point of the Sports Grill is the gas-fired pizza oven with decorative tile work above, where cooks prepare three varieties of pizza daily.
The Ram’s Horn Express, the only retail operation, features fruit smoothies, espresso coffee drinks, and a variety of grab and go sandwiches, salads, pizza, sushi and snacks, as well as convenience-store items.
On the second level, The Ram’s Horn dining center, with more than six stations, includes exposed beams and angular edges to emphasize the spaciousness of the dining room and ceiling heights, which rise up to 20 feet. The use of metal, stone, quartz and glass on countertops and other surfaces brings a touch of elegance and durability to the marketplace. Large windows allow views of the intramural fields and foothills.
A Nutrition Information kiosk sits adjacent to the Mongolian Grill upstairs and allows students to access nutritional information about items served at the dining centers on campus.
Sustainable aspects can be found throughout the entire building including wind power supplying the energy to the building, composting plate waste, sensors for variable-speed controls on cooking hoods, trayless dining to decrease plate waste and compostable packaging for to-go meals.
An in-depth profile of Ram’s Horn will appear in Foodservice Equipment and Supplies’ May issue.
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