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After a 75-point men’s basketball win, Syracuse University alum Bryan Dumas ran to the Taco Bell in Kimmel Hall with his friends to celebrate. At the time, Taco Bell locations around Syracuse would offer free tacos after a 75-point win, and gathering in Kimmel to enjoy the “Taco Time” offer after the game became a tradition.

“The team was still pretty good, so they scored 75 points at a decent clip,” Dumas said. “I remember many ‘Tacos Times’ at Kimmel, other great meals in between classes, after class, late at night on the weekends; it was always a great environment.”

Kimmel is currently home to SU students and the ITS MakerSpace. Until 2021, it was also a dining hall and over the years had options like Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Sbarro, along with typical dining hall options and a convenience store. SU announced on Feb. 26 that the building, along with Marion Hall, a neighboring sophomore residence hall, would be torn down to make way for an updated residential hall complex.

Along with the incoming residence hall in place of Kimmel and Marion, SU has announced other student housing developments, including the construction of another residence hall at 700 Ostrom Ave. and the conversions of the Sheraton Hotel and The Marshall apartments into student housing. The changes come after an increase in undergraduate enrollment from 14,201 in 2010 to 15,421 in 2022.

For years, Kimmel was a favorite dining hall for many students like current senior Dan Capelli. Capelli was heartbroken when he heard Kimmel was closing his freshmen year. He said it felt like “a fog” settled over campus for a month once the news broke.

Capelli hoped the dining hall would make a return for a while, even last year, but now all he can do is reminisce. He made some of his closest friends by going to Kimmel weekly.

“Each Wednesday, freshman year, me and my friends, we would make the trek all the way across campus from Sadler, which was my freshman dorm,” Capelli said. “Just to make it over to Kimmel to stock up on snacks and the convenience store section and get nachos and Häagen-Dazs.”

Students could use their meal swipes there and purchase various food items at Kimmel. For Dumas, the dining hall had whatever his “heart fancied” because of the many fast food spots.

Kimmel also stayed open late so students could grab late-night treats. Bruce Williams graduated in 2009 after playing on the football team and recalls it as a more convenient option for grabbing food than walking to Marshall Street. It was also a space to socialize, like when students gathered there after Drake’s 2010 performance at Block Party, he recalled.

“It would just be those late-night meetups with friends or just even alone,” David Yontz, class of 2002, said. “It was just one of those social hubs.”

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Kimmel Hall was the go-to spot to dine for many Syracuse University students. Its array of fast food options, convenience store and normal dining hall options appealed to students.

But Kimmel was special to Yontz because of more than just his friendships. One night in his senior year, he was writing a paper for a philosophy class and decided to fuel up with a cup of coffee from Dunkin’. He still remembers his order from that night: a Boston Kreme donut and a coffee.

Yontz sat outside of Kimmel on a bench and saw a friend of his approach with someone else. What he didn’t know then was he had just met his future wife, Katie Langrock. He still considers the moment “love at first sight.” That night, they hung out with his other friends before she went back to school at Miami University at the end of the weekend.

They stayed connected, exchanging AOL instant messages and he sent her his mixed CDs. Eventually, they dated and got married in 2007. The last time they returned to the spot they met at SU was before they got married. Now, they never will again, and since Yontz is a sentimental person, he is sad about the loss.

“We revisited the site, but we had never been back, and so now we probably won’t be able to get up there before it’s demolished,” Yontz said. “So it’s sad that we’ll never have that.”

After hearing Marion and Kimmel would be demolished, Yontz instantly looked at options to travel to Syracuse to revisit the spot one last time. The trip wasn’t feasible, though, he said, as his home state of Georgia is too far.

For current and former residents of Kimmel and Marion, the construction is a much-needed opportunity for improvements. The buildings haven’t been renovated since 1988 and has lacked the amenities of newer dorms like Ernie Davis Hall.

“Definitely Marion and Kimmel were kind of bare bones in that way,” Dumas said. “Like older dorms on campus, I’m sure they were probably lacking some of the things college students are looking for.”

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Sophomore and current Marion resident Kaitlin Bo Iong said the dorm needs new amenities. She misses the pod bathrooms in her freshman-year dorm and believes students deserve better than the building’s communal bathrooms.

She said that while it’s bittersweet to think she’s the last person to live in her room, it also brings to mind how many people lived there before her, making the room feel “historic in a bad way.”

“Marion and Kimmel need a makeover and I’m happy that they’re finally getting a much-needed makeover,” Iong said.

Williams didn’t have Ernie Davis Hall when he was a student, but now he drives by it every day and admires the modern building, which he sees as part of creating new legacies for future students, he said.

Marion and Kimmel’s legacy comes from the opportunities to study, socialize and “forge long-time friendships” in the spaces, Dumas said. Williams hopes SU honors the old buildings in some way, like hanging pictures in the new space.

“We always talk at Syracuse, remember the land in which you’re on and the memories and people and things that came before you,” Williams said. “For these students, I’m excited for them to create new memories in this new building that goes up.”

Published on April 17, 2024 at 11:59 pm

Contact Rosina: rlboehm@syr.edu