TwelvEighty approved for $7,000 pipe and drape wall

Patrick Kim
The Silhouette

TwelvEighty has been approved for a new $7,000 permanent drape system, with the goal of improving its dining and catering services.

The SRA passed the motion brought forth by VP (Finance) Jeffrey Doucet with a near unanimous vote on Feb. 9. The proposal involves a permanent installation of a retractable pipe and drape system that will separate the restaurant from the open dance floor.

Kaley Stuart, TwelvEighty’s Service Manager, said that this will be the largest addition to TwelvEighty since she took the reigns of the restaurant.

“We’re pretty excited about it, because when we’re open as a restaurant we can just keep that area divided and make the restaurant feel less massive,” she said.

The cost is expected to cover both the purchase of the drapes as well as the installation being done by AVTEK. The drapes will be black and will employ roller gliders to retract quickly and allow staff to set up and take away the drapes easily.

Campus events at TwelvEighty currently require drapes to be manually set up to partition the event from the restaurant. Stuart explained that each event requires anywhere from six to eight hours to set up the partitions.

“Instead of us paying the wages for somebody to come in and put the pipe and drape up every single time, it will be a permanent fixture that can be pulled out and pulled back,” she said.

The drape walls will also have built-in noise insulation, which will help TwelvEighty expand its catering service, which recently released its latest menu.

According to Doucet, this will “address the awkward dynamic that there is at TwelvEighty right now when there is a catered event operating during restaurant hours.”

“The lack of a physical barrier ruins the intimacy of the catered event, and more importantly, it allows sound to travel from the restaurant to the catered event,” he said

While the drape walls will be pulled back for club nights and other social events held at TwelvEighty, the drapes are otherwise expected to become a permanent addition to the setting of the restaurant. Drawing from the use of similar drapes at previous events, Doucet stated, “We have received very positive feedback about how it looks.”

In addition to providing a more intimate setting for events, Stuart also described the possibility of the space becoming a casual study and eating location for students to use.

“Once the area is sealed off, then the rest of the week it can be used for pretty much anything…  The more people we get in and out of our doors, the more useful we are to the student population.”

The drape wall is planned to be installed by the end of March.