Description
The 19,000 sf three storey, in-fill addition and 47,000 sf interior renovation of the George Brown Chef School (Centre for Hospitality & Culinary Arts) on Toronto’s Adelaide Street East dramatically opens and transforms a 1980’s building into a showcase for innovation in culinary education. The project enables the college to raise its profile in the city with a recognizable campus landmark, to expand its food and hospitality programs by as much as fifty per cent, and to attract and retain the best faculty and students.
The building acts as a showcase of the College’s innovative hands-on culinary program, projecting student chef activities out onto the urban campus. A two-storey glass façade exposes the inner workings of the school, giving street-level visibility to the kitchen “labs”, moving them out of their usual rear or basement location. Along a highly-trafficked urban block, passerby in downtown Toronto can witness a culinary performance highlighted by students’ starched white chef uniforms and hats against a backdrop of gleaming stainless steel workstations, ranges, ovens, washing stations and racks of pots and pans. The stainless steel is accented by brightly-coloured fume hoods and walls, sparkling lighting, lush herb gardens and plasma monitors that add a kinetic and spectacular effect to the architecture as they project close-up views of food preparation.
From the interior, the glazing provides views down Frederick Street towards the school’s newly created learning restaurant, the Chef’s House, visually connecting the two buildings. These fresh facilities increase the dynamism of George Brown’s presence within the neighbourhood and frame the street so that there are clear possibilities for creating an external campus identity. The strategic design created a critical dialogue between College and City, strengthening the George Brown brand. Even when the school is closed, horizontal strips of coloured glass ensure that the façade provides an interesting counterpoint to the austere visual landscape of predominantly historic masonry buildings along Adelaide Street.
