Walking into school on the first day, I was excited to see that the new addition to the commons had been completed. The expansion, which added 8,000 square feet, finally gave students a bit of breathing room.

The sleek design and the incorporation of school colors into the overall palette gave the cafeteria a refreshing update. The high ceilings and expanse of windows invite the outdoors in and provide an abundance of natural light, creating a positive atmosphere throughout the room.

However, even with its tasteful elements, it has flaws.

Increasing the capacity of the space to 900 people is impressive, but it just isn’t enough for what we need. The cafeteria remains crowded, and our school is growing too fast for such a small addition to be sufficient.

I believe even an alternate expansion would have suited the school better: a second floor.

Adding a hollow staircase, leading up to another floor filled with extra tables and chairs, and walls covered in acoustic panels sounds infinitely better than an undersized, echoing chamber.

The acoustic panels would save everyone’s ears from the racket that lunchtime normally produces. As the cafeteria is now, you can barely hear the person next to you. The paneling would help to dampen the noise, making lunch a quieter and calmer experience.

Additionally, the extra space on the second floor would help make lunch a less packed and stuffy experience. It would mean students can disperse around the room, rather than staying huddled in groups as they are now, blocking exits and impeding foot traffic.

Walking through the cafeteria right now, I can’t go anywhere without needing to navigate around groups, hoping that I don’t get stuck in the crowd. It’s a miracle to even be able to get through the doorways.

The two-story space would solve this problem, let us get places quickly, and find spots to sit at without needing to search through the room.

Lunchtime shouldn’t be a mad dash around the cramped space we have now. The expansion should’ve accounted for these problems and helped to fix them.

Students need more space and that is something I believe the new addition fails to provide.

If a building looks pretty but fails to suit the needs of the space, then it needs to be scrapped for something better. That’s what I think of this new addition: a missed opportunity when we could have gotten something better.