Design Story: The Culinary Institute of America
at Greystone
The Viking Teaching Kitchen was designed by Adam Busby, a Certified Master Chef and Director of Education at The Culinary Institute of America's Greystone campus. Using architectural drawings that delineated the kitchen space, a formula was created that balanced revenue per square foot, workspace sizing, and class size. The calculation yielded a space capable of comfortably holding 36 to 40 students in a professional teaching kitchen.
An important element in the design of any teaching environment is to have clear, unobstructed lines of sight and minimal use of walls. Bearing this in mind, an open kitchen plan was conceived, and three suites were planned for installation. Using dimensions from the Viking Commercial website, the to-scale suites were drawn on graph paper and placed onto the architectural drawings.
Facilities Manager and General Contractor Greg Phipps assisted in ensuring pathways were correctly sized and that the three suites would actually fit as intended. From the sketches, Greg created CAD drawings of the suites, which Viking Commercial used for the final rendering. Viking then created three-dimensional drawings of the finished product, which was fabricated and installed in the completed teaching kitchen.
Because each Viking Commercial suite is identical, students have a consistent experience no matter where they are placed; a critical point for daily training, as well as when administering examinations and competitions.
Products installed: Three custom island suites consisting of sealed burners, fryers, charbroilers, standard ovens, pass-through cheesemelters, and custom cabinet bases.
