Culinary Education

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George Brown whips up innovative showcase for culinary education

Design offers view of culinary school’s inner workings

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

Toronto’s George Brown College is creating a showcase for innovation in culinary education with a two-pronged expansion at its downtown St. James campus.

The project consists of an addition at the college’s flagship Chef School on Adelaide Street East and renovation of a newly acquired storefront property on King Street East.

Architects are Kearns Mancini Architects Inc./Gow Hastings Architects Inc. in association.

“The floor-to-ceiling glass on the Adelaide Street extension and the existing expansive windows on the historic King Street renovation will provide a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of the Chef School,” said Philip Hastings, a partner in Gow Hastings.

“The profile of George Brown College and the Chef School will be dramatically enhanced by this renovation and addition.”

The design team includes project managers MHPM Inc., mechanical and electrical consultants Smith and Andersen Consulting Engineering and structural consultants Halsall Associates. Contractors are JJ McGuire General Contractors (King Street) and Acquicon Construction Co. Ltd. (Adelaide Street).

The 18,000-square-foot addition at 300 Adelaide Street East is intended to create “a glassy transparency” for the school.

The glass curtainwall will afford views of the inner workings of the Adelaide Street East site of George Brown College’s Chef School.

In a neighborhood of solid masonry buildings, the glass curtainwall will provide views into the expanded school and culinary classes being conducted in new kitchen labs located at sidewalk level.

“The sleek stainless steel kitchen islands and exhaust hoods, engines of food production, will shimmer like Lamborghinis in an automobile showroom,” the architects said in a statement posted on the college’s web site.

Beyond the new addition lies an array of interior renovations that include infilling of a new floor in the interior atrium at ground floor level and the addition of a dramatic new meeting room suspended over the atrium at third floor level.

The interior alterations will transform the spatial qualities of the school by opening up a large central area of the ground floor for student use and special events.

Construction is scheduled for completion next August.

As part of the expansion, a 3,200-square-foot heritage building at 215 King Street East will be fully renovated.

The three upper floors will be converted into classrooms.

An open kitchen and 70-seat dining room will be located at street level while private dining facilities will be on the lower level.

A new super-scaled window will be installed as a layer of glass in front of the existing brick on both the King and Frederick street facades, marking the signature restaurant and its glass-canopied entrance.

A dramatic “chef-centered” identity for the restaurant will be achieved by locating and displaying the open kitchen and food preparation area in the corner window and entrance way, the architects said.