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UNM Renovates La Posada

or the first time in 56 years, students arriving at the University of New Mexico (UNM) in
FAlbuquerque will have a fully reno-
vated La Posada Dining Hall.
“La Posada was originally built in
1961,” said Timothy Backes, associate
director of Business Operations, Dining
Services with the school. “This is the
first major renovation. There have been
minor renovations, small facelifts, where
we did the fronts of the foodservice
kiosks, but nothing more than that.”
Obviously, the style of service at
the pre-renovation La Posada became
antiquated. “It had that cafeteria feel,”
he said. “It was two long lines, different
stations, but it was one long shot you
looked down and you saw your sand-
wich station, your pizza station, your
grill station, your classics and then New
Mexican food, but one shot right down
the side.”
The decision to renovate was made
two years ago when the school was in
negotiations for a contracted foodservice
provider, which is now Chartwells. “We
wanted to work out the capital money
that would be part of the contract,” said
Backes. “Also, we worked through the
university and the architects here. They
did some initial fact finding for us —
what initially the client was looking
for: was it just a dining experience, or
a whole overall experience; for students
to come and study, to have meetings,
things like that. There was a lot of re-
search to be done.”
One of the first areas that needed
to be renovated was the atrium. “The
atrium, which was in the center of the
dining room, was actually a part of the
ventilation system of the building, so if
it was 20 degrees in Albuquerque, the
atrium was 20 inside,” he said. “If it
was 95 degrees, it was 95 in the atrium.
They sealed all that up and we tore down
all of the windows on all sides of the
atrium and leveled out the floor.”
The dining room area was also
changed by moving some venues into
it to give it more of a food court feel.
“We took the Einstein Bagels, the Star-

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