Arizona State University broke ground on a $10.1 million, 20,000-sq.ft. dining center, as well as a $13.4 million, 318-bed residence hall at its Polytechnic campus in Mesa on June 21. Both facilities, part of a public/private partnership between ASU and Inland American Communities, will open for the beginning of the Fall 2012 semester.

The ASU Polytechnic dining facility will consist of a 350-student dining room, a private dining area, open cooking servery and exterior seating on three sides that will offer connections to the existing campus. In addition, the facility will have a small grocery store and café.

The dining facility will be a LEED silver building and will be a critical social linkage between the freshman housing on the west and the student recreation center on the east. It will be managed by Aramark.

“The addition of a new residence hall and dining facility at ASU Polytechnic will help us realize our vision for this campus as a place where students from Arizona and abroad can come to live and learn in a truly innovative environment,” says ASU President Michael M. Crow. “For first-year students, it is particularly important that they live in a place they can call ‘home,’ where they can be supported by the university and each other.”