September 30, 2015

Shortlists Announced! Bialosky Team in Two Big Interviews Today (Good Luck!)

Today is a busy day for the Bialosky team as we have two interviews today both close to home and away.

The first is the renovation/ rehabilitation of Taylor Hall at Kent State University, which today houses the College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED), the College of the Arts, the School of Communication Studies, and the May 4th Visitor Center. With the CAED moving to their new building in 2016, Taylor Hall will namely house the School of Visual Communications Design (VCD).

Taylor Hall Kent State University

Taylor Hall, the 1960's building set on "Blanket Hill", on the National Register of Historic Places, will be rehabilitated for Kent State's VCD program. The project is seeking LEED Silver Certification.

Shortlisted teams are:

  • Bialosky + Partners Architects
  • bshm architects
  • Payto Architects
  • Van Auken Akins Architects

The second interview for Bialosky today is in New York, for the renovation of the historic Carnegie Library in downtown Binghamton. Constructed in 1903 and listed on the registry of Historical Buildings, Carnegie Library will be renovated to house SUNY BROOME Community College's Hospitality Center.

carnegie

Over a century old, the Carnegie Library will find a new life as SUNY BROOME's downtown Binghamton campus, housing their Hospitality Program.

We are excited to team with Holt Architects for this endeavor! The architectural firm out of Ithica are also highly experienced in Higher Education projects, and ranked as one of Central New York's Best Places to Work (Sounds like we'd make a good team!)

Good luck to all of you today!

September 10, 2014

IIDA Talk of the Town: Urban Cool Meets Farm Fresh

We are excited to share that Bialosky + Partners has been featured in the IIDA Cleveland Akron City Center Newsletter and website’s “Talk of the Town” column.  The article profiles Cuyahoga Community College (CCC)’s Hospitality Management Center (HMC) and the adjacent private restaurant Pura Vida.

Read the article here: http://www.iidaohky.org/articles/cleveland-akron/urban-cool-meets-farm-fresh-ccc-hospitality-management-center-pura-vida

The project goal was to create a new image for the college via contemporary, forward-looking architecture paired with clean striking interiors that creates an inviting community nexus to celebrate the art of cooking.  Glass walls admit views into the restaurant kitchen allowing the culinary students and visitors to see the instruction process in action.  This visual connection enhances the idea of Culinary Theater and demystifies the art of cooking.

Pura Vida + CCC HMC won a NAIOP Northern Ohio 2013 Award of Excellence for best Mixed-Use Interior Design project and a 2012 Award of Merit from IES (Illuminating Engineering Society).

Additionally, mark your calendars for the upcoming IIDA OH KY Chapter Annual Conference that will be held in Cleveland on October 17!  It’s held here once every 5 years and speakers this year include Cheryl Durst, IIDA CEO and Michael Murphy, Co-Founder and CEO of MASS Design Group.

http://www.iidaohky.org/events/cleveland-akron/iida-oh-ky-chapter-annual-conference-cleveland

January 29, 2014

So You Want To Build a Culinary School?

Dollar signs ($$,$$$,$$$) are what every College administrator imagines at the mention of a new Culinary Arts Program. Its launch may be one of, if not the most costly investment an institution of higher learning can make. For these reasons and more, its recipe must be artfully constructed with consideration given to both the end user and community’s palettes. Its conception must be artfully balanced to satisfy the institution’s curriculum needs, the technologically entrenched student user’s expectations and prospective donor philanthropic objectives. The development of such a facility affords opportunities for public outreach, rectifying existing campus master planning shortfalls, and the development of synergistic opportunities between existing internal and external College partnerships.

The May Company Building Store Front

The May Company Building in downtown Cleveland, OH is home to both Cuyahoga County Community College's Hospitality Management Centeand acclaimed restaurant Pura Vida.

At first glance, the creation of a new or revival of an existing culinary arts program appears self-contained and finite, when in fact it is quite the contrary. Many of a College’s existing facilities can and should be evaluated for their potential symbiotic relationships with your new culinary facility.  Its only when your perspective elevates to 20,000 feet do these synergies truly reveal themselves.  Performing art centers, conferencing centers, sports facilities, central food service, public programming, are all venues that can take advantage of and enhance a culinary program/facility. This new facility, in addition to fulfilling its primary use teaching the culinary arts, can provide the college with a marketable team-building outreach center, special event pre-function space, or an elegant on-campus restaurant to aid in its fund-raising endeavors.

LCCC Culinary Demonstration Kitchen

Demonstration Kitchen with smart classroom technology for distance learning at Lorain County Community College Ben & Jane Norton Culinary Arts Center

In addition, this investment must exploit the potential of each space beyond its original program and consider the opportunities to utilize its physical environs for alternate educational offerings. Flexible and well-planned teaching kitchens may convert to an A-La-Carte kitchens, with a simple equipment reconfiguration, to service gala events being held in the culinary school’s new multi-purpose lounge/lecture hall/special event space. Accessory spaces normally considered off limits to students should now be seen as invaluable educational tools in support of your new culinary curriculum. Shipping and receiving areas, for example, can serve as a working sanitation and safety labs, or prep kitchens, where students attain first-hand experience receiving, inventorying, cleaning, and prepping food product. Better yet, your new program could celebrate the locally grown food movement with the inclusion of a greenhouse/garden adjacent to or on top of your new facility showcasing the advantages of locally grown produce, while at the same time reinforcing the importance of sustainable building design.

Pura Vida Restaurant Kitchen

Cuyahoga County Community College's Downtown Hospitality Management Center shares space with noted Cleveland restaurant, Pura Vida (pictured here). Having a professional kitchen adjacent and visible to culinary school students provides additional opportunities for students to be inspired, learn, and engage.

You can now imagine that these students, your students, graduate from a program with more than just the traditional culinary education but one with innovative business practices at its core, an embedded understanding of the benefits of local sustainable food communities with a creative approach that these prospective employees associate with added value.

Ben & Jane Norton Culinary Arts Center - Exterior

Exterior View of the LCCC Ben & Jane Norton Culinary Arts Center at dusk.

This post was authored by Bialosky Cleveland Principal Mark Olson, AIA, LEED AP For more info: View this video produced by Lorain Community College with students, professors, and professionals discussing the opening of the Ben & Jane Culinary Arts Center and the launching of LCCC's Culinary Arts Program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZmZZQOJs9w Cuyahoga Community College offers a similar video with background on their program, focusing on the downtown Cleveland Hospitality Management Center and the Eastern Campus HMC programs, which were both designed by Bialosky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0iOeGQdoME

November 19, 2013

LCCC Culinary Arts Design Receives AIA Honorable Mention Award

Bialosky + Partners Architects received a 2013 Honorable Mention Award from the Cleveland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for Achievement of Excellence in Architectural Design for the Lorain County Community College Ben & Jane Norton Culinary Arts Center in Elyria, Ohio.  Our thanks goes out to the college, the construction team, our consultants, and our photographers as well as our colleagues and the prestigious jury for this great honor. The following images and project brief were included in the award submittal: [slideshow_deploy id='2236'] LCCC Ben and Jane Norton Culinary Arts Center Culinary Theater The project, sited between existing campus buildings with complex access and service issues, combines two unrelated programs: the college’s relocated TV studio and the new culinary school. By employing twelve access points from the adjacent buildings and eight level shifts on the ground floor as a mechanism for carving and shaping the final form and program areas, we created an experience of culinary arts instruction akin to a public theatrical production. The west façade, acting as the formal building entry, is a proscenium-like frame of metal and wood around a wall of glass that allows views into and out of the kitchens on the lower and upper levels. The entry plaza is an outdoor living room with shaded multi-level seating encouraging viewers to watch the interior activity.  A rotated vestibule with a grand stair cuts across the front of the building and acts as the main pathway between the three buildings and allows viewers a close look into the teaching kitchens. Like the exterior, the demonstration kitchen and lecture room exhibit a series of overhead wood frames that spill out light, reminiscent of a stage. The kitchen and lecture room relationship is orchestrated as a culinary theater between the demonstrator and student. The space is an interactive distance-learning center that encourages audience participation. The three additional teaching kitchens feature state of the art video cameras and viewing screens including a two-way floating glass screen that can be simultaneously viewed inside and outside the kitchens.  The TV studio takes on a similar process where the studio itself is on display to the passerby, but so is the control room and the video technology room where all the participants in the process are “on the air” to the public. The exterior materials are related to the adjacent buildings with blended brick, light buff concrete, and dark bronze metal.  The interior pulls the exterior materials inward, transitioning to a crisp, clean palette centered on stainless steel, medium grey metal, blue tile, and a warm wood. The project is pursuing LEED Certification with high efficiency kitchen equipment, low-volume cooking hoods, reduced-flow plumbing fixtures, and LED lighting throughout.

June 25, 2013

Bialosky Wins At NAIOP Northern Ohio 2013 Awards of Excellence!

Bialosky + Partners Architects is proud to announce that we recently received an award at the NAIOP Northern Ohio 2013 Awards of Excellence, winning best Mixed-Use Interior Design project for the Cuyahoga Community College Hospitality Management Center & Pura Vida Restaurant located at 200 Euclid Avenue in the heart of downtown Cleveland. Check out the rest of the winners by clicking here!

Lobby and Demo Kitchen at CCC Culinary