Blue Wall brightens, updates look with primary colors, bistro furniture

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

Campus staff admire the new floor at the Blue Wall before furniture is delivered. The eatery retains its signature "broken" walls and the blue tile surface for which it is named but has changed to a fresh palette of subtle variations on primary colors. (Stan Sherer photo)

he Blue Wall still has a blue wall and most of its free-standing "broken" concrete ones, but the Lincoln Campus Center eatery otherwise has a new bistro look, thanks to an intersession renovation.

     "I hope it's going to be received well," said Retail Food Services operations manager Brenda Ryan-Newton, smiling as she looked around the room. "Physical Plant did a tremendous job. So did Facilities Services [in the Campus Center]."

     Pale tiles flecked in more-or-less primary colors dominate the floor, with occasional accents of sage, maroon, or medium blue tiles. They replace worn sandy-brown cork-tiles. Plastic chairs and scratched tables have given way to chrome and maple veneer chairs and blue-swirl-topped chrome tables. Multi-colored fabric seats in sage, rust, caramel and two tones of blue dot the room.

     Both tables and chairs come in two heights - standard dining and bar - so customers can sit with their feet on the floor or on rungs as they perch at one of the higher tables. The bistro-height tables have three stools around them and currently are gathered in the southeastern corner of the room, where a new television will hang in about six weeks, but may move when lounge furniture for that space arrives, Ryan-Newton said.

     The raised, mirrored area where the television previously hung holds standard height tables and chairs, as does the rest of the Blue Wall. These come in squares, larger rectangles and rounds with various numbers of seats around them. The television section is being moved to the southeastern corner to enable student organizations to use the raised area for dancing in the evenings.

     "We're going to work with the Student Activities Office on programming," Ryan-Newton said.

     "The basic concept was to brighten up the place," said Ashoke Ganguli, director of Auxiliary Services. The $200,000 renovation is part of an effort to improve the student experience at UMass, he said.

     "I'm so excited," Ryan-Newton laughed, "I think the food will taste even better."
Ganguli said media reports that the Blue Wall will serve alcohol are premature but that he is putting together a proposal to be considered by staff and administration in Student Affairs and Administration and Finance. "It isn't a done deal," he said. "If the campus decides to go ahead, nothing [will change] before Spring Break."

     Ryan-Newton said the new design takes into account the possibility of serving alcohol by reorganizing space so that students and their guests who are not of legal drinking age would not have access to alcoholic beverages.

     "We want students to have a place they can bring their parents and where [those over 21] can get a beer or a glass of wine after 4 p.m.," she said. "We wanted to make this space more attractive so parents can see it and feel good about the campus and about sending their children here."