Description
This three phase renovation project involved: 1) the renovation of under utilized spaces to provide a new state-of-the-art Demonstration Kitchen Lab and Lecture Theatre; 2) Multipurpose Labs, Tiered Demonstration Lab, and Wine Tasting Lab offering new interactive teaching platforms that allow culinary students to observe and practice in real time; and 3) the student-run restaurant, “The Humber Room,” where guests can enjoy fine dining in an elegant atmosphere while students gain valuable hands-on experience. It draws a closer connection between curriculum and practice.
With the CCCAS, Gow Hastings pioneered the design of the interactive teaching platform now prevalent in today’s culinary schools in Canada, connecting tiered lecture theatres to food laboratories. Developed as a pilot project for Humber College, the system integrates recessed flatscreen televisions into the architecture of both spaces to provide live visual feedback of on-going instruction, allowing students to simultaneously observe and practice in real time.
The renovated facility offers students the latest in technology; carefully-design systems and finishes that provides a safe work environment and a quiet enough atmosphere that allows for natural vocal projection; and top quality audio visual equipment to aid instruction. Spaces are multi-purpose: a folding partition that enables two labs and the wine tasting theatre to operate as separate classrooms, or, when the partition is removed, as one large presentation space suitable for cooking competitions and television broadcasts. State-of-the-art stainless steel ventilation and lighting ceiling system from Europe are the first application of its kind in North America.
