Dear AU Community, 

As we welcome you back from summer break and welcome our new students, we are pleased to share progress updates about the exciting work being done on campus to create spaces that support student thriving. 

Terrace Dining Room

Over the summer, we completed work on the first total renovation of the Terrace Dining (TDR) in almost 40 years. The new TDR brings cooking out from behind the scenes to each action station, allowing our community to interact more directly with our culinary team during their dining experience. The new TDR is designed to more closely align with a food hall-style of cuisine delivery featuring new furniture that we selected based on community input from last fall’s Panera furniture pilot project, and improved use of technology throughout. Community members can expect a variety of seating options, including booths, high-top tables and family-style tables that are great for groups small and large to eat, study, and spend time together. New automated turnstiles will make entering TDR easier. Meal plan holders will also have a new TDR to-go program, supported by our partnership with Grubhub. Importantly, our new dining hall now features specialty-designed preparation and cooking areas for our kosher-observant and allergen-sensitive community members in brand new, dedicated action stations. We invite everyone to come visit and enjoy a meal in this vibrant new space adorned with our AU colors.   

McDowell Hall Renovation 

Our teams were hard at work completing the renovation of McDowell Hall in time for the 2024-2025 academic year. The work included reimagining McDowell’s lobby to transform it into a living community space with a redesigned floorplan for separate resident and guests’ entry points, all while maintaining campus standards for safety and security at entrances and exits. During the renovation, we revamped the first-floor Group Function Lounge to be a flexible student area perfect for resident groups looking to unwind, added and enlarged two smaller lounges for student activities, added a game room, and created a small conference room off the lobby for student group work. All rooms were refreshed, complete with new furniture and all floor lounges received new finishes, accent seating areas, and new kitchens. Lastly, all bathrooms were redesigned for privacy, with seven individual-use, pod-style spaces, each with a toilet and shower.  

Student Thriving Complex

Work continued during the break for our Student Thriving Complex projects. This includes completion of renovation of the third floor of the Mary Graydon Center (MGC), a phase of the project that has successfully delivered more flexible and focused student spaces, including the new Student Engagement Commons. We will begin work this fall on full renovation of the second floor, with completion planned for spring 2025. During this work, The Center for Well-Being Programs and Psychological Services will remain accessible in a new location on the second floor, and with interim operational measures in place during construction. You can learn more about these measures here. Once finished, MGC will be transformed into the primary hub of student engagement activity on campus and continue to be an integral part of the student experience for years to come.  

Construction work has also progressed at the site of our new Meltzer Center for Athletic Performance. A livestream camera feed of work activity at the site is now available for our community and may be accessed here. 

We look forward to sharing more updates with you throughout the semester on all work to support the student experience at AU. We invite you to contact us with questions or comments about this work at vpft@american.edu, and wish everyone a successful academic year and fall semester.   

Onward we go, together!      

Bronté Burleigh-Jones
CFO, Vice President, and Treasurer   

Jonathan McCann  
Assistant Vice President, Planning and Project Management  

Michael Scher  
Assistant Vice President, Campus Auxiliary Services and Airlie   

Vin Harkins 
Assistant Vice President, Facilities Management