New Teahouse Dedicated at Doheny
Photo/Dan Knapp
Located behind the Doheny Memorial Library, the site officially was dedicated Feb. 22 as USC administrators, donors, faculty, staff and students looked on.
The Nazarian Pavilion was made possible by a $1 million gift from philanthropists Soraya and Younes Nazarian.
The Nazarians’ children – David, Shula, Sharon and Sam – attended USC.
The money – donated in 2004 through the Y&S Nazarian Family Foundation – was used to fund the renovation of the courtyard, open an additional entrance to Doheny Library and construct the adjacent teahouse.
Designed by Dianna Wong and LHA Architects, the Nazarian Pavilion offers visitors an inviting place for conversation and collaboration.
“Our library users’ highest desire was that we create for them a place where individuals or small groups could sit down together, maybe over a cup of tea or coffee, and discuss ideas,” said Jerry D. Campbell, chief information officer and dean of the USC Libraries, during the dedication ceremony. “Thanks to the vision of Soraya, Younes and their family, this new venue will invite personal study and reflection, as well as collaboration, all of which are essential for the university to thrive.”
The university’s wireless network provides Internet access to students in the refurbished courtyard. New café tables, chairs, planters and wall-sconce lighting accentuate the pavilion’s décor.
The pavilion leads into the Doheny Library corridor and rotunda, linking the courtyard with the library’s ground floor exhibition spaces.
Perhaps the most anticipated feature of the pavilion is the addition of an as-yet-unnamed teahouse.
Operated by TrojanHospitality, the 700-square-foot teahouse will offer food and beverages, including sandwiches, salads, baked goods and specialty coffees. The teahouse will feature Tazo brand teas, including more than 18 varieties of filtered bag teas, 10 different loose-leaf teas, organic teas and tea lattes.
The hours of operation will be 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. The facility will be closed on weekends.
The creation of the teahouse was a longtime goal of JoEllen Williamson, the project’s coordinator and deputy executive director of the USC Information Services Division (ISD).
“When I first started at USC more than five years ago, one of my priorities was to revitalize the Doheny Library courtyard and make it more inviting,” Williamson said. “Thanks to the generosity of the Nazarian family, we finally were able to undertake the renovation.”
“We opted for a teahouse because we wanted to provide something for our patrons that is different from the typical coffeehouse,” Williamson added.
ISD and TrojanHospitality are co-sponsoring a naming competition for the teahouse. All currently enrolled USC students are eligible to propose names for the space. The person who suggests the winning name for the teahouse will win a $50 gift certificate to the teahouse or two tickets to a literary luncheon sponsored by the Friends of the USC Libraries.
Entries for the competition will be accepted until Friday, March 24, at 5 p.m.
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