Newark Vocational High School, Culinary Arts and Hospitality Academies

Project Details

Project Description

The project converted approximately 10,000 SF of corridors , former vocational classrooms and storage areas in this 1960s High School building. The program included 3 state of the art commercial kitchens, 2 separate dining rooms, to function as upscale restaurant spaces and instruction spaces. The Hospitality Suite includes a custom concierge desk, upscale furnishings, lighting, high end finishes and a business center/instructional space.

The spaces are fully wired for technology, video conferencing/remote broadcasting. Some special features include fire rated glass separation walls required by code and provided for complete natural observation of the activities, full views of the kitchen from the Dining Room, a living moss wall, seamless epoxy floors throughout. Additional features included renewable wood paneling, daylight harvesting/lighting controls, exposed existing concrete structure strategically screened with floating wooden clouds to help define spaces and control acoustics.

This $8 million dollar project, executed as part of our multi-year term contract with the Newark Board of Education to provide architectural and engineering design services included the design of an innovative and upscale space to teach and train high school students from the state’s largest school district in Culinary Arts and the Hospitality industry. The purpose is to train students to be chefs, food industry positions, as well as hotel and travel industry-related occupations.