Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD Administration Building

The challenge

Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD’s new administration building brings district staff together under one roof, and the district wanted dining to be a reason people gather there — not an afterthought tucked in a back corner. The food service had to serve a daily lunch crowd quickly while feeling more like a modern workplace café than a cafeteria.

The design solution

FDP designed the building’s staff café and servery as the social anchor of the commons. A curved, tile-clad serving counter wraps a feature column at the center of the room, with a cook-to-order hot line and display cooking behind it, a grab-and-go and coffee bar, and self-serve beverages — all coordinated with a full back-of-house production kitchen and ventilation.

The servery opens directly onto a daylit, two-story commons: communal quartz-topped bars, café tables under a warm wood-slat ceiling, and outdoor dining terraces that look out over the surrounding landscape. The layout lets staff move from line to seat without crossing paths, and keeps the space working for meetings and events between meal periods.

The outcome

The result is a workplace dining destination — a café that pulls the whole administration building together around good food, daylight, and views, with a production kitchen built to serve it every day.