In addition to describing the reason why the School needed a separate classroom building—to provide modern instructional settings and reduce pressure on the library—Dean Donald David also called for the construction of a new dining facility capable of serving three meals a day to 750 students, and one meal a day to a faculty of 125 and a staff of around 300.

"Such a building," David wrote, "not only would meet a critical dining hall problem and contribute immeasurably to the social and intellectual life of the School, but also would make it possible for us to convert the old individual dining halls into common rooms for the use and enjoyment of the students in the living halls. I believe it is particularly important in a graduate professional school that an opportunity be provided for students to mingle informally under appropriate surroundings. These rooms, suitably furnished and decorated, would provide an incentive for the students to invite to their own informal gatherings men from business and men from the other Faculties within the University. They would, I believe, be important centers of student activity."