“Students no longer take three scheduled meals a day, preceded or followed by concentrated periods of study,” said principle architect Jim Favaro. “Young people today want the option of taking meals and studying in fragments of time throughout the day and night.”

To accommodate shifting student behaviors, UCLA commissioned Johnson Favaro to transform the old 22,000 square foot food-court-style kitchen and cafeteria in Hedrick into a more suitable space, open 24 hours a day. The architects drew inspiration from hipster hotels, steampunk and the maker movement; traditional university libraries such as Powell Library at UCLA and the Widener at Harvard; as well as the Italian rosticceria, French boulangerie, English pub and American delicatessen.

The original kitchen was updated and now services all of UCLA’s west campus residences. The remaining 11,000 square feet was completely renovated to include a European-style food hall, fireplace lounge, a large central reading room, a quiet study room, all surrounded by light-filled lounges and smaller study areas.

The central reading room sits in the middle of the action. From within the wood and goldenhued room, under a custom-printed sunset ceiling, students can observe surrounding activity through wall openings, yet it is acoustically isolated and conducive to individual study. The separate, midnight blue quiet-study room features custom printed blue and white tile on the floor and a NASA photograph of the universe on the ceiling. Ethereal in look and feel it succeeds in creating a refuge from noise and activity. On the north side of the central reading room lies the fireside lounge, which is bound by full height black chalkboard walls where students can think and study together.

Along the east side of the reading room and facing out onto gardens, the main lounge models a hotel lobby in providing group seating, individual seating, reading tables and study carrels. Along the south side of the reading room are a more intimately scaled lounge area and glass enclosed, sunlight filled group study rooms. Along the west side of the reading room, between the food hall and the reading room, are three 20-foot-long community tables at bar height.

Hedrick Study has become so successful that it is packed with students 24/7. Food is available until 2:00am, but the study is always open.