With a burgeoning student population and additional housing coming online, USF needed to understand how best to serve its upper campus, which is not well connected to dining and social spaces at the lower campus. Field Paoli was engaged early on to conduct programming exercises and to produce space planning studies identifying how best to site and size the much-needed student facilities.
The resulting location and design fits into a tight footprint next to a historic structure. Lone Mountain Dining Commons renovates a 10,590-sf existing cafe and adds a 3,761-sf freestanding pavilion designed to take advantage of dramatic
views to San Francisco’s downtown skyline. The total of 14,268 sf encompasses a full kitchen and serving area, a 1,370-sf grocery, four food venues, and 3,055 sf of seating, study,
and lounge spaces.
The pavilion is connected via a covered walkway to the adjacent historic building. The covered walkway creates a zone for protected outdoor seating featuring a through wall fireplace and overhead heat lamps to combat the often foggy and windy Lone Mountain climate. Acting as a Student Union for the Lone Mountain Campus and community, the new Commons provides the campus population with better, healthier food choices, as a well as a place to shop, connect, study and socialize.