Culinary Arts Center Breaks Ground

Page Senior Principals Bob Burke and Larry Speck as well as Senior Associate Franklyn King and Associate Jennifer Woods were all in attendance for the St. Philip’s College Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Arts Center of Excellence groundbreaking ceremony. One of the oldest and top-ranked culinary arts schools in the country, the new Page-designed facility will continue the school's tradition of excellence while providing enhanced learning and teaching facilities.

The 61,200-square-foot, four-story building will feature five teaching kitchen labs and two full commercial kitchen labs around which the rest of the facility is organized. The labs are located along a wide corridor for easy access and visibility of the activity within by both students and visitors. The public spaces of the building are designed to feel like a hotel—spacious, easy to navigate and with multiple small seating areas to promote social interaction.

Jennifer Woods, who is serving as project architect, said, “A culinary school is not a project type that comes around very often, which only makes it that much more exciting to be a part of! It has been a hands-on, educational experience working with Alamo Community College District and the St. Philips campus to help take their culinary and hospitality programs to the next level by providing them with a building worthy of their historically distinguished programs. We are just as excited as they are to see this building come to life, not with just the start of construction in September 2018 but seeing the students and community activate this edge of campus for years to come.”

Funded as part of a $450 million bond package approved by San Antonio voters in May 2017 to both construct new Alamo College District facilities and renovate existing college buildings, the $30 million building also contains two restaurants which will be open to the public. The 1898 Café on the first floor will serve American cuisine. The crowning jewel of the building is Artemisia’s Restaurant. Cantilevered from the north end of the building and wrapped in floor-to-ceiling glass for dramatic views of the downtown San Antonio skyline, the restaurant is the namesake of the school’s founder and is where the most advanced students will prove their skills by planning menus, preparing and serving four course meals of the highest quality to the public.