By Yerehny Limon, October 3, 2023
Before the new, shiny Centerpointe Dining Commons was built, many Cal Poly Pomona students ate at Los Olivos Dining Commons. Now the Los Olivos Commons remains abandoned and neglected.
The Los Olivos building has been abandoned since the opening of Centerpointe Dining Commons Jan. 21, 2020. Now only staff with key cards are allowed into the empty building.
The abandoned dining hall stands in between Encinitas and Cedritos Halls on University Drive, which was built in the 1960s as the main dining hall for students living in the dorms.
Students faced many issues with the building, while it was in operations, such as the lack of accessibility, the numerous stairs leading up to the entrance of Los Olivos, no ramp for wheelchairs and limited handicap parking at the back of the building, issues with heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
Matthew Whinery, senior associate vice president for Facilities Planning & Management, stated the Los Olivos building was a priority two building seismically.
Whinery explained the differences with these distinctions priority one meaning that the university needs to make changes to the building immediately while a priority two means that it is safe enough to be in but, the university would need to review the entire building to see if it’s worth saving and spending money to make changes.
Whinery mentioned the Los Olivos building is located in an active seismic area and when it was built, the standards for a building in a seismic area were different to the new standard seismic codes put in place. Though the building is safe to use, the building would need to be brought up to the updated seismic standards required.
The costs of renovating the Los Olivos building would be too high and would require a thorough review of the entire building. Facility officials thought it would be best to forego renovations to not renovate Los Olivos and instead create the new dining commons, Centerpointe, Whinery said.
According to Aaron Neilson, dining service director for CPP enterprises, he was a part of CPP’s campus master planning group where they discussed a new housing and dining location as early as 2016.
Any issues Los Olivos had, Centerpointe improved according to Neilson.
“The capacity of Los Olivos was over 400, where our new dining facility seats 700 comfortably,” Neilson said. “We intentionally designed the Centerpointe Dinning Commons to allow for future growth.”
Centerpointe Dining Commons is environmentally friendly compared to Los Olivos Dining Commons. Neilson mentioned how Centerpointe Dining Commons has pre-consumer composting meaning any scraps from the kitchen will be composted. Water and electricity usage decreased relative to the Los Olivos Dining Commons.
All of Los Olivos issues and CPP’s plan to already create more living spaces for students was enough reason for university officials CPP to decide to close Los Olivos permanently.
With many reasons as to why the building was abandoned, it raises questions as to why the Los Olivos Dining Commons wasn’t demolished earlier. it hasn’t been removed yet.
According to Whinery, the Los Olivos Dining Commons is put on a Cal State Priority list to be demolished removed from campus. However, until there is enough money to provide for the removal, the Los Olivos Dining Commons is on the list to be reviewed again next.
Feature image courtesy of Gregory Karp
