The culinary students at Prince George’s Community College (PGCC) in Largo, Maryland now have a new facility to serve up their delicious creations. The college’s new Culinary Arts Center recently opened after three years of construction and is a state-of-the-art hub for PGCC’s culinary program. The Grimm + Parker designed building includes 9,800 square feet of Kingspan BENCHMARK Designwall 2000 insulated metal panels (IMPs) –
8,000 square feet in Silver Metallic and 1,800 square feet in Copper Penny.
Complete with three restaurant-size kitchens, classrooms and meeting space, the building provides students with a combination of hands-on learning and classroom education. With 21,351 square feet, this $20 million culinary center has enough space to accommodate PGCC’s growing student population.
The signature design feature on the building is the high canopy constructed from Silver Metallic metal panels. The challenge for Kingspan was the sweeping curve and sloped soffits of the canopy. This added a degree of difficulty in engineering the layout, as the specifications required the project use only flat panels. Using curved panels would have driven up the cost of the materials substantially for this project.
The canopy design utilizes segmented curves, which creates another challenge in attaching flat panels to the curved surface. To solve this issue, the panels were segmented so they could be tilted as a four-panel assembly along the curve.
Kingspan’s design team used Revit BIM software for a 3D look at the project as it was being designed. Using BIM software to engineer a complex project like this generates a bill of materials (BOM) when the design is complete, including panels, flashing, extrusions and other materials. This is a huge advantage and can lead to a more efficient and accurate final project.
The materials for the canopy were compiled and shipped like a kit, making for a simple on-site assembly by Alonzo Ours Construction. In the case of Prince George’s Community College, IMPs helped create the best recipe to for its new culinary arts center.
“Thanks to the well-designed proportion and selected finish materials, the installed canopy at PGCC’s Culinary Arts Center truly stands out! The color and finish of the installed metal panels brings a cohesive, ‘fresh’ contribution to the present architectural context of the campus,” said Diedre Gibson, Planning and Design Manager at PGCC.