1.6K 
Centennial College Progress campus is renewing its partnership with Diamond Schmitt Architects. The esteemed architects most recently designed the elegantly modern Library and Academic Facility for the Scarborough-based college which was completed in 2011. This time, the two are pairing up to build the college's Residence and Culinary Arts Centre, also at the Progress Campus.
The eight-storey building will house Centennial's School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts. The ground floor will have open views for passersby into the seven kitchen labs of the Culinary Arts Program. There will be eight additional classrooms on the first and second floors along with a teaching restaurant and café. A new conference area and banquet hall for the college will be located on the building's top floor. It will boast a a capacity of over 400, will be serviced by the teaching kitchen.
The residence area of the building will house accommodation for 740 students in the form of two- and four-bed suites configured around a courtyard garden, allowing for a wealth of natural light into the suites. Every resident here will have a treat not afforded to most undergrads: a private bedroom. In addition, every suite will house its own bathroom and kitchen. Additional amenities include corner lounges, yoga studios and screening rooms on each floor.
Amongst Centennial College officials along with local political representatives and Donald Schmitt of Diamond Schmitt Architects on hand for the ground breaking, Dr. Craig Stephenson, Centennial's Vice President, Student and Community Engagement remarked that "Our partners have worked very closely with us to design a vision of residence life that will offer students far more than a place to lay their heads. They will not only get to know each other as potentially lifelong friends, they could also get involved in a number of programming activities ranging from international affairs groups, cultural nights, study and fitness-focused groups."
The building will also boast a residence experience with an environmental conscience: the 353,500-square foot residence is targeted to obtain LEED Silver certification for sustainable design. The $85-million project, financed and managed by Knightstone Capital, will be constructed using high efficiency glazing and highly insulated walls and roofs to improve energy performance. The building will also include a green roof and water-saving features.
The Residence and Culinary Arts Centre, providing a mixture of living and learning, will serve as a campus hub for both students and the surrounding Scarborough community at Markham Road and the 401. It will be the Progress Campus' closest building to the street, displacing 150 parking spaces to another lot at the east end of the campus. That's a small price to pay for an impressive state-of-the art gateway building.
The building is slated for completion in September 2016. Until then, we will keep you updated with its progress. For additional information check out our dataBase file for it, linked below. Have any thoughts about the project? Leave a comment in the space below or join the discussion in the associated Forum thread.
| Related Companies: | Diamond Schmitt Architects, entro, Trillium Architectural Products |
