The South's Most Stunning Dining Hall, as proclaimed by generations of Jackets and confirmed in 2017 by Southern Living magazine's list of the most stunning dining halls in the South. At times compared to Hogwarts, Brittain has a magical way of transporting alumni back to Tech.
Brittain Dining Hall is easily the most impressive place on a college campus to eat breakfast. Under a cathedral ceiling and bathed in iridescent light from stained glass above, omelets have never looked so good.
Whether you went to Brittain for a quick meal (the burritos were a hit) or to enjoy the company of classmates, everyone who has stepped through the arched doorway can appreciate the dining hall’s grandeur.
If Brittain’s architecture gives you an almost virtuous feeling, that’s on purpose. Constructed in 1928, the building’s architect, Harold Bush-Brown, was the head of architecture at Tech at the time. Bush-Brown came from Harvard University, where he followed the Beaux Arts school of thought that architecture could embody art and life’s values.
Robert Craig, professor emeritus of Tech’s School of Architecture and author of Georgia Tech: Campus Architecture (2021), explains that those of the Beaux Arts school believed students could absorb these values through a well-constructed building. Architects like Bush-Brown held fast to two ideas, Craig says.
“The first is that architecture is art, which seeks beauty and adornment. The second is the idea of ‘caractère’, or the spiritual values and emotional and evocative elements of a space. This has more to do with the heart than the brain.”
Why is Brittain such an edifice of nostalgia for Yellow Jackets? One argument, suggests Craig, is that architecture that’s focused on spiritual values rather than only the bricks and mortar can create a higher level of engagement with the building. The effect is similar to how theatre-goers experience empathy for actors on the stage.
“It’s empathy when you experience the building on site and it’s nostalgia when you think about it after you’ve left,” Craig says.
In the next few pages, learn about Brittain’s stunning architecture while reminiscing with fellow Yellow Jackets about what made this dining hall so special.
Didactic Architecture: Teaching Through Design
Brittain is adorned with sculptures, tapestries, and stained glass—all of which were made by Tech departments, and which pay homage to Georgia Tech. In this way, Brittain is an example of “didactic architecture,” in that it teaches students in the same way that cathedrals taught Bible studies, says Robert Craig, professor emeritus of the School of Architecture.
"I will never forget Ms. Sheena behind the counter wrapping burritos and always checking on how our days are going." –Pratyush Mamidanna, CE 15
A Place To Gather
Brittain’s layout is based on a country house tradition in England, in which the whole community can gather under a great hall. “When you walk into Brittain, you go under the tower, and you walk through a screens passage and turn either right or left into the great hall. That’s right out of the English tradition,” Craig says.
Refreshed Culinary Features
Dining hall food isn’t usually worth writing home about, and for many years, the same held true for Brittain. But this summer, Brittain was the first of the Institute’s dining halls to re-open under a new, in-house program called Tech Dining. Brittain’s stations and menu were revamped to include more international and healthier food options and an in-house pastry station serving tasty treats. The new culinary team is focused on improving the quality and variety of culinary options for students. A new station called Global Connection focuses on international cuisine, and one called Engineered Salads features a full salad bar with multiple types of protein for vegans and vegetarians.
"First semester freshman year, I ate almost exclusively at Brittain Hall. Loved the food, particularly the Southern dishes. It was where this Yankee learned to love grits, hominy, greens, corn bread, and chicken livers." –Don Lutz Jr., AM 76
Tech's Talent on Display
Several Georgia Tech departments contributed to Brittain, which was dedicated to Tech’s fourth president, Marion L. Brittain. The ceramics department manufactured the floor tiles, the textile department made the wall tapestries, and the mechanical engineering department created the wrought-iron light fixtures.
While a student, Julian Hoke Harris, Arch 28, designed Brittain’s intricate stained-glass windows, a memorial to the class of 1928. Craig says, “When you look carefully at that window, you’ll see figures that represent the fields of study here. Mechanical engineering, architecture, electrical engineering and so on. They’re holding different symbols just like the figures in the gospels did on a medieval church.”
These symbols are another example of didactic architecture at work, Craig says. Visitors learn about the Institute through Brittain’s artwork.
Harris continued the Tech motif outside the dining hall as well. After graduating, he returned to Tech as a practicing sculptor to create the 10 corbel stone faces on Brittain’s outer arcade.
Each face includes the name of an academic discipline and a historical figure that represents that field of study. For instance, Leonardo da Vinci’s name is inscribed under the face for aeronautical engineering and Michelangelo for fine arts.
"Got to love Hogwarts. I learned to cook pasta dishes by watching the chefs at the fry station each day and remember if you brought in fresh fruit the pancake guy would throw them in your pancakes." –Chace Crowell, EE 12
A Side of Romance
Photographs: Love & Story Collective
They say the stomach is the quickest way to the heart. One couple who will always remember Brittain’s romantic side is Gabby (Rosen) Avery, IE 17, and Jordan Avery, IE 15. The couple got married in Brittain on Nov. 9, 2019. Besides the perfect location, there were no less than 17 Tech grads in their wedding party.
Gabby and Jordan met through mutual friends in Greek life—Gabby was an Alpha Xi Delta and Jordan was a Delta Chi. Brittain wasn’t on the couple’s radar as a wedding location until Gabby’s father, Glenn Rosen, IM 85, suggested the unique space. With Jordan’s love of all things Tech and Gabby being a fourth-generation Yellow Jacket, Brittain was the perfect common ground for the two to tie the knot.
“We loved the architecture and the history of east campus,” Gabby says. “But then the question became, How do we do it? No one else had held a wedding in Brittain before.”
After they worked with two facility managers to rent the space and finalize details, invitations were sent out to guests with “Brittain Dining Hall” listed as the location. “We definitely got a few funny looks from people who didn’t go to Tech and before they showed up. I had to pull up a picture of Brittain a couple times to explain it.”
On the day of the wedding, they let Brittain’s architecture speak for itself with simple decorations and a chuppah below the soaring ceiling.
“We kept it simplistic to speak to the beauty of the building,” Gabby says.