After sitting in the dark since 2021, Pomeroy Hall’s former dining hall is about to gain a new life. The ground-floor room, once home to a dining hall catering to vegetarian and kosher needs, is being transformed into a study space. 

   The dining hall was shut down during the COVID-19 lockdown, as vegetarian and kosher dining was transferred over to Stone-Davis Hall. However, the dining area was not immediately repurposed — despite intentions to do so for the past few years — and has been closed off to students as it underwent renovations. Pomeroy Hall Resident Assistant (RA) Mia Kovan ’27 explained a student panel catalyzed the decision behind this new space.

   “Paula [community director of Pomeroy] sent out an email to all of the res-staff last year. Basically, she was like, ‘Hey, do you have any residents who are really involved in the community? You can recommend them, and they’ll join this panel and talk to the person designing the plan,’” Kovan said. 

   From there, a few meetings were quickly followed with renovations, including the replacement of light fixtures, repainting of the walls and replacement of furniture.

    “They interviewed a group of students in April, around that time last year, and then the renovations started pretty soon after,” she said. “I do think the majority of [renovations] happened over the summer.”

   According to Kovan, the panel, which consisted of six Pomeroy residents, almost immediately agreed to dedicate the area to another community space.

   “I think that it’s always good to have more community spaces in the dorm. I think that because Pom places such a strong emphasis on community, it’s helpful to have a space designated for studying so that other places can be used as a more social space,” Kovan said. “Part of the reason we talked about having a study space is because the library is so far away.”

   Expected to open within the next month, this space will give Pomeroy students an additional study area in the common room. 

   House President Eliza Lynch ’26 mentioned her excitement that student could use the space to foster a stronger sense of community, while creating a more cohesive environment for co-living. 

   “When we’re in [House Council], for example, people can be studying downstairs, or when people are studying upstairs, [other] people can be hanging out and chatting downstairs,” Lynch said. “It allows for other ways to study, hang out, [and] do group projects. We’re always wanting more spaces to decorate and to hang out in.”

   In order to conduct the renovation sustainably, the room will use repurposed furniture from the newly renovated Clapp Library. Additionally, through the design work of Senior Project Manager Rania Bartick, the majority of the incoming furniture will be a deep red color, leaning into the “pomegranate red” theme of Pomeroy Hall. 

   While Pomeroy residents look forward to the new room, not every former dining hall-turned-study room on campus has found success. For Cazenove Hall, Pomeroy’s neighbor, the study area — also a converted dining hall — sits largely unused. Students attribute the emptiness to Cazenove residents not utilizing communal spaces as much as Pomeroy residents. 

   “I lived [in Cazenove] my first year, and I feel like it was not as busy in the living room [compared to Pomeroy],” Kovan said. 

   Below Cazenove’s unused study area sits the basement study room, which has been filled with storage instead of students, for many years.

   “It would be nice if they would do something with the spaces instead of just having them sit empty,” former Cazenove resident Sydney Chao ’27 said. “It feels like a waste to just have those rooms being used as storage spaces for furniture and applicants that will likely never be used again.” 

   As Pomeroy Hall prepares to open its new study space, the community is hopeful it will become more than a place to work: a hub of collaboration, socializing, and dorm life. 

   “This is really exciting to me. I think it’ll be great,” Lynch said. “I think Pom’s community spaces are used a lot, and so I’m excited to see how students take it on.” 

Contact the editor responsible for this story: Lyanne Wang