The Joseph A. Paglianite Culinary Institute at Luzerne County Community College (LCCC) is a two-story structure designed as a dedicated learning center for the college’s Culinary Arts & Pastry program. The institute is located in downtown Nanticoke at 6 N. Market St., about one mile from the main campus. The completion of the project in 2013 by Mark Construction Services marked a major expansion for Luzerne County Community College into the wider community.
At its core, the Joseph A. Paglianite Culinary Institute serves the dual role of hands-on practice center and refuge of classroom learning for the college’s thriving culinary-arts track.
The interior design from Deb Stone Interiors is instantly welcoming. The extensive use of natural light from windows, transoms, and skylights invites students to relax in the lounge areas between instruction. The hallways and classrooms feature splashes of bright color in the carpeting and furniture to calm the mind and produce feelings of satisfaction.
The building features two spacious industrial kitchens for group instruction and practical cooking and baking. The institute’s more than 30 individual workstations – each with dedicated prep surfaces, ranges, and gas and water lines – allow large classes of students to produce food independently without interrupting the flow of activity in the space.
The kitchens and sheer number of separate workstations required more than just a design. This is where the construction experience of our principal, Scott Douglas Allen, proved invaluable. We coordinated a complex network of MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) alongside GPI/Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. so the kitchens would be functional and safe while retaining a clean and modern aesthetic.
The Joseph A. Paglianite Culinary Institute also features classrooms, a climate-controlled pastry lab, Gertrude Hawk Chocolate Room, and the Kowalski Auditorium and Media Center. This broadcast-capable theater allows audiences to view live kitchen demonstrations.
The on-site dining room – with a unique, amoebic-shaped vaulted ceiling – allows guests to be served by students studying restaurant service.
The Joseph A. Paglianite Culinary Institute at LCCC was an exercise in everything that makes S|D|A Architects, P.C. unique: construction-informed, budget-conscious design, practicality and safety, and a structure that continues serving the community where we live and work.
