Yale Schwarzman Center opens

Courtesy of Francis Dzikowski

September 1 marked the long-awaited opening of the Yale Schwarzman Center, or YSC, starting with a lunch for Yale undergraduates in the Commons Dining Hall for the first time since 2017.

The Schwarzman Center is a student union providing spaces for community gatherings and the arts. The centre’s facilities are based on three principles: collaboration, well-being and belonging. The center, originally known as “Commons,” closed for renovation in 2017 following a $ 150 million donation from Stephen Schwarzman ’69 in May 2016.

“The activation of lunch at Commons, seats in the subway and take-out service at Bow Wow marks a busy start to the process of bringing the centre’s spaces online,” YSC Executive Director Garth Ross said in an interview with the News. “We are very grateful to our partners at Yale Hospitality for these accomplishments. And we look forward to activating the entire center in the coming months, as permitted by the University’s COVID guidelines, and seeing it come to life with performances, events and meals with students, faculty. , staff and our friends across New Haven and beyond. “

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According to YSC Marketing and Communications Director Maurice Harris, the center encourages interdisciplinarity and each space encourages Yalies to design new ways to take advantage of the features offered.

The focal point of YSC is Commons, the historic university dining hall which opened in 1901. The now remodeled space retains its long wooden tables and chandeliers, complemented by a new sound system, air conditioning and projection screens.

Yesterday, diners discovered a new method of food selection: a plate meal at one of the four thematic stations. According to Christelle Ramos, senior director of hospitality marketing and communications at Yale, meals at Commons are different from the “all you can eat” style of residential college dining halls. This supports Yale Hospitality 2019 Organic food waste reduction initiative.

There are two cafes, located in the underground area of ​​YSC, which will open at a later date. These stores are named Elm and Ivy in homage to “Elm City”, or New Haven, and the Ivy League. Elm is an all-day cafe with ice cream and brewed coffee, while Ivy serves “late night pub food” in the evenings. Yalies over 21 can come to the Well, a dimly lit pub carved into the building’s granite foundation and serving beer from Dan-shaped beer taps. Harris said the name applies not only to the look of the room, but also to its mission of well-being. The room is devoid of televisions and is intended as a place of fluid conversation.

Another snack bar that just opened in The Underground is The Bow Wow, unofficially replacing Durfee’s convenience store. Here, students can use lunch sticks to pick up snacks such as sushi, kombucha, and seaweed, and they can also purchase Yale toiletries and products. Durfee is closed this year and Ramos said she was “not sure” that it would ever reopen.

YSC is primarily a space for the arts in addition to community building, and its artistic offerings begin at Commons, where exhibits can be displayed on screens. Ramos described the connections between food and art, explaining the meticulous care of Commons chef David Kuzma at every meal.

“Food is an art form in itself,” she said.

Visitors can explore student and professional art in two galleries. In the coming months, students will be able to request these spaces to exhibit their work or reserve live performance venues via YSC website.

The Underground houses a theater and dance studio. The theater is Yale’s only pre-stage theater – a type of antique theater where a rounded stage juts out towards the audience – and viewers watch from four small booths with fireplaces called “cantous”. The dance studio, meanwhile, features pan-tilt-zoom, or PTZ, cameras that swivel in multiple directions, AV systems, mounted speakers, and a drop-down projection screen – suited to the post-Zoom world. The space is currently in use as a COVID-19 testing site.

“The studio is beautiful; they put a lot of time, energy and money into it, for which the dance community is truly grateful, ”said Nora Faverzani ’23, Co-President of Yale Dancers. “The hope is that as the need for testing decreases the studio can be used for dancing – there are a lot of places you can test but not a lot of places you can dance. “

In the past, graduate students were generally excluded from Commons. A call from three student governments – the Yale College Council, the Senate of Graduate and Professional Students, and the Assembly of Graduate Students – sparked the concept of a center bridging the boundaries between undergraduates, graduate students and professional students at Yale.

On the second floor of the center is the annex, a natural light hallway with alcoves for the students to meet. The annex includes a lounge for graduate students and will house a satellite location of the Good Life Center in Silliman from October.

Alexa Vaneghas ’20, a Woodbridge member at the Good Life Center, said graduate and professional students often find the GLC residential college location inaccessible. She is looking forward to the new litter of the GLC and is considering other wellness centers on campus in the future.

“It’s impossible to think of student life without also thinking of well-being,” Vaneghas wrote in an email to News. “Creating a wellness center at YSC not only emphasizes the community-based nature of student life, but also helps create a campus culture that promotes wellness as a basic and accessible human right. “

On the third floor is The Dome, a performance space that is equipped to serve any artistic purpose and exemplifies YSC’s call for creation and innovation. It features a floating floor, PTZ camera, projection screens and a performance space in the center of the room. Harris can’t wait to see Yalies bring their creativity to the room.

On Tuesday evening, YSC Senior Residential Restaurants Manager Robert Sullivan sent an email attributing the times undergraduates could have lunch at Commons based on their residential college.

Hannah Landau ’23 said there was no line when she received her meal on Wednesday, which was an improvement given the crowds at places like Silliman and Berkeley College. This allowed him to ask questions about the ingredients and mention the dietary restrictions. Veronika Denner ’23 added that Commons offered fewer vegan options than residential college dining rooms, but the ones available tasted better.

Sam Heimowitz ’23 said his only frustration was the restriction to one meal.

“I was very pleasantly surprised and impressed with the quality of the food,” said Max Heimowitz ’23. “It sounds like a more sophisticated experience than the [residential college] dining rooms. “

Commons is open daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch.