Java Café on DCU’s St Patrick’s campus is set to go under renovations to upgrade and refresh the social space, said DCU Chief Operations Officer Declan Raftery.
Work will start in early January and they hope the renovations will only take four weeks and will end in late January, though may keep going on until early February.
“Though the renovations are taking place during the exam period, it shouldn’t have too big an impact on the students, as usually the café shop is closed and the seating area is the only part available during exams,” said Raftery.
The renovations to Java is the latest in high-level projects in DCU, the last being the U building on the Glasnevin campus.
“After finishing the U, they looked at other facilities across the three campuses to see what needs help and wanted to do something on St Patrick’s campus, which they decided would be Java Café,” said Raftery.
“This is the main hub for social space and is a popular spot for the students of St. Patrick’s College, so the renovations and upgrade for the café was needed as it hadn’t been renovated since 2014/2015 and has been used extensively by students over the years,” said Deputy Chief Operations Officer Martin Ward.
“It’s good that Java is getting a bit of an update, it really needs it. The furniture isn’t great and it’d be good if they could make more efficient use of the space because the amount of seating areas in Pats don’t equate in the slightest to the number of students,” said Aileen Ryan, a third-year DCU student who is based on St. Patrick’s Campus.
Raftery told The College View that the upgrade of Java has been on the to-do list of the faculty and Students’ Union and they happily embraced the project.
He said they started looking into the project eight weeks ago, and it was quickly scheduled as they wanted to be able to do it during the Christmas break as the next opportunity to do it would be the summer holidays. Everything in Java is getting upgraded, from the lighting to the furniture, though it won’t be getting a bigger space.
The SU reached out to the students so that they have a say in the name and design for the new Java. The students decided to keep the name ‘Java’.
Rachel Halpin
Image Credit: Alison Clair