Dawson’s new Dining Commons is centrally located on the school’s campus in Boulder County, serving as a common gathering spot for students of all ages. Carefully sited along the school’s main tree-lined walkway, the building provides diners with views across campus in three directions. The architecture strives to blend the indoors and outdoors with a double-sided fireplace, an operable glass wall, and columns whose rhythm emulates the nearby canopied trees.
The building serves all students from grades K through 12. The main dining hall seats approximately 350 people at tables, and up to 500 if converted to a chairs-only presentation venue. The dining hall opens to a covered outdoor patio which doubles as both overflow dining space and as an outdoor classroom and events space shared by the campus. Smaller meeting rooms for student groups support the main dining area.