NANTICOKE, PA
The 22,000-square-foot, two-story culinary arts center, designed by Scott David Allen's Scranton-based architectural firm S/D/A, is being built by William Rinaldi's Mark Construction Services, also based in Scranton.
The $7.6 million project will be funded by $4.5 million in state grants and $3.1 million from the college upon completion. The building is on schedule to be finished by August, in time for classes to begin in the fall, culinary arts program Chairman Sal Shandra said.
The facility will contain two kitchen labs with more than 30 individual work stations, a pastry arts lab, an elevated auditorium with a television studio, a computer lab, and a room where students can learn the service aspects of the industry.
"It's actually beyond our expectations. When I saw the prints, I said 'wow,'" Shandra said.
Faculty, including Shandra and Pastry Arts and Hotel Business Management Coordinator Jim Phillips, played an integral role in helping design the center to meet the needs not only of the 180 students currently in the culinary arts program, but those of the future, according to LCCC President Thomas P. Leary.
Project end date: 2010
Client: LUZERNE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE