Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/255439
Durham College Centre for Food by Yvan Marston D urham College's new state-of- the-art culinary school sits quite apart from the main build- ing on the Whitby campus in Ontario, in a landscape that has yet to be developed. But its 36,000 square feet has been de- signed specifically to connect the col- lege to big ambitions, broad vistas and best practices by setting a pace in the competitive field of post-secondary education, where programs must dis- tinguish themselves as much by their context as by their content. "The idea here was to create a build- ing that demonstrated the process of preparing and serving food," explains architect Philip Hastings, whose firm Gow Hastings Architects has designed culinary schools for three other Toronto-area colleges. The Centre is purpose-built to teach every aspect of food preparation. A long narrow rectangle clad in fritted glass, steel panels and natural granite, the building is essentially two wings joined at the centre by a two-storey atrium that serves as a main entrance from both the north and south sides. When the atrium air isn't filled with the aromas of the baking lab, the first of three state-of-the-art kitchen class- rooms, the space's living wall lends a clean, fresh scent to the space as it hints to the "field-to-fork" concept that under- lies the building's design philosophy. Its organization is intended to show- case the full cycle of food production. From planting and harvesting food around the Centre to preparing it and consuming it, Hastings explains that the idea is to conjure a linear sequence like a production line. Built to accommodate 900 students, the Centre houses the college's culi- nary, hospitality, tourism, agriculture and horticulture programs. Indeed, Ontario's need for more workers in tourism and hospitality prompted Durham to move its culinary program from using space in a local high school to building one of the province's most sophisticated hands-on food prepara- tion learning facilities. "This is no longer the 'chalk and talk' method that used to rely on the appren- ticeship stage to teach students working techniques," says Michelle Darling, the college's senior project manager. "Here, the students can see, learn and do." It isn't a large building, but it makes itself bigger by virtue of the fact that you can see through most of its spaces, says Steve Garritano from Garritano Bros Ltd. Seven months into the proj- ect, the scope was drastically reduced and the firm had to reimagine a smaller facility for a more modest number of users. That was perhaps the largest challenge of the project, says Garritano. Designs that were started in April of 2011 were abandoned in December 2011 whereupon a redesign began. Still, phased permit approvals were issued in April 2012 and in August 2012, and the building was delivered on time and on budget by August of 2013. Garritano says users can get a proper sense of the building from the second floor at the atrium. "You can stand at the mezzanine and understand everything at every moment: the bake lab and wine pairing lab below, the restaurant to the west, the classrooms to the east and outside, north and south you can see where the planned fields will be." The facility features three learning kitchens, each capable of accommodat- ing 24 students. On the ground floor, across the atrium from the wine pairing studio is the first kitchen, or lab as these are called. It is fitted mainly for baking. Chef instructors have a workstation at the front with a controllable cam- era that broadcasts a view of the front cooktop to the monitors in the room. "Chefs are 'edu-tainers' now," explains Darrin Caron, dean of the Centre. "Students expect a certain level of inter- action and animation in the delivery of the course material and we use cameras and personality to deliver that." Two more kitchens, one for single serving cooking on the ground floor, and another to teach large quantity cooking on the second floor, are simi- larly equipped with flex stations. Moving from the food distribution area on the east end, through the core and its kitchens and clean-up areas, the building programming goes from learn- ing to serving, following the flow of food as it passes through one last kitchen, the fully operational restaurant kitchen for the Centre's Bistro '67 before finding its place on a plate in front of a diner. With seating for 70, the restaurant's soaring 20-foot ceilings accommodate a south facing window wall that connects the space to a proposed horticultural field outside. Exposed timber fram- ing and six-inch-wide oak veneered planking on the floors work with elabo- rate Balsa wood chandeliers above to give the great white space a sense of warmth. Three dining room monitors offer views of the kitchen work stations so that patrons can watch the creation of their meals. For students in programs other than culinary, the Centre features three large 50-seat classrooms with collapsible walls that can allow the space to form one large venue. These classrooms form the bulk of the programming for the east wing's second floor. Clad in frit- ted glass and granite accents, the wing also houses the food storage, adminis- trative offices and the 140-seat lecture hall. To the west, a longer rectangular form, which houses the restaurant and kitchens, stretches towards the nearby intersection. Fritted low-E, coloured glazing and more granite on the south face combine with metal panels to minimize heat penetration. This west wing stands almost a full storey higher than the east wing so that the full height of the restaurant ceiling works not only to give the eating space a little drama, but on a practical level, this elevation hides the rooftop exhaust fans. With four kitchens and more than 40 cooking appliances, the Centre's structure carefully hides an elaborate ventilation system in its walls, ceiling and shafts. As for construction challenges, Garritano says there was not much beyond the typical problems of poor soil and ground water issues. "Those hurdles are typical. The greatest chal- lenges these days are about delivering on time and on budget," he says, adding that despite a significant design change, the project was completed on schedule and at its projected cost, without a sin- gle contractor-driven change order. n Location 1610 Champlain Avenue, Whitby, Ontario owner/DeveLoper Durham College architect Gow Hastings Architects Inc. Design-BuiLD Garritano Bros Ltd. structuraL consuLtant Stephenson Engineering Ltd. MechanicaL consuLtant MCW Consultants Ltd. eLectricaL consuLtant DEI & Associates Inc. FooD service consuLtant Cini-Little International, Inc. totaL area 36,000 square feet totaL cost $18 million renderings courtesy gow Hastings arcHitects inc. february 2014 /67 Durham College Centre for food p66-67Centre for Food.indd 67 14-01-22 11:11 AM