After 50 years of continued operations, Reading Hospital undertook a major renovation of their existing employee café and main kitchen housed in a Neo-Georgian style bi-level building located in the heart of their campus. The completed renovations included reconfiguration and modifications to existing services including the main kitchen and food preparation areas, an overhaul of the servery and main dining room.  Each of these four elements were designed with functionality and aesthetic in mind, while maintaining the historical integrity of the building.  The design incorporates a self-serve gourmet coffee bar, full service grill, brick pizza oven station, self-serve du jour station, an extensive salad bar island, and a custom bakery stand.  The dish room, previously located on the lower level below the main kitchen, utilized a failing tray conveyors and antiquated equipment that operated inefficiently.  The renovated space was able to relocate the dish room on the same level as the main kitchen and directly adjacent to the other programs that utilize it the most.

The project was especially challenging in that it was necessary for uninterrupted meal service throughout the renovations which provided up to 4,000 patient, employee and visitor meals every day.  The design, construction and end user teams developed a workable phasing plan that was successful in achieving that goal.