Jungers Culinary Center

Project Details

Project Description

Located on the perimeter of the Central Oregon Community College (COCC) campus, the 15,000 sf Jungers Culinary Center is the anchor for a future mixed-use development. Inspired by a simple cottage in the woods, the Center emerges from its rocky site with an exposed concrete base in a design that uses simple forms, construction methods, and use of regionally sourced materials. The building massing is rectangular volumes captured below the plane of its low-sloped shed roof. The building materials retain a careful interplay of contrasts – the warmth and lightness of wood against the cool mass and strength of concrete; the transparency of glass adjacent the textural qualities of cedar shingles and horizontal cedar siding. The building’s transparent main lobby, dining room and magnificent indoor/outdoor fireplace combine to create an inviting grand front porch that strengthens the connection between interior learning spaces and outdoor community areas.

The main lobby is simple and modest. Finished on the exterior by cedar shingle siding and glass walls, the interior’s polished concrete floor gives way to a small culinary library wrapped in dark wood slats, wood panels and glass, making it a focal point in the overall lobby space. The library houses community-donated culinary books and computer work stations.

Adjacent to the lobby, the main dining room is designed to be flexible while maintaining its intimacy for dining and learning experiences. Located under a 25-foot tall roof, the sense of coziness is achieved by lowering a ceiling plane of dark wooden slats. An adjacent executive dining room, clad in board-formed concrete, can be opened up to the main room by way of operable wood and glass doors.

The “Central Hall” is the building’s main circulation and doubles as a flexible gathering space used for art exhibits, culinary displays and casual dining. The south-facing clerestory windows allow daylight into the space. The Douglas Fir roof joists are bathed in this changing light as they span the hallway in a repetitive and rhythmic pattern. The Central Hall connects the offices and building service areas on the south to all of the teaching kitchens on the north. Instructional Kitchen, Demonstration Theater and Dining Lab were designed to be multi-purpose spaces, providing both academic and community use.

The Jungers Culinary Center was a pilot project for Earth Advantage’s Commercial program for sustainability. The facility was certified EA Gold.