The Canadian Food and Wine Institute has racked up dozens of awards for its student-made beer, wine and spirits.
Last month, it added some new hardware to its growing list of accolades, but not for anything edible or drinkable.
The Aurora Armoury Canadian Food and Wine Institute (CFWI) was announced the winner in the Architectural Design and Event Space category of the Liv Hospitality Design Awards.
The awards, handed out annually, “celebrate quality architectural ventures and interior design diversity that shape hospitality worldwide.”
“(This award) continues to bring that level of excellence you expect with college-designed infrastructure,” Craig Youdale, CFWI Dean, said about the award. “There’s no limit to what we can do in that space.”
That includes using the building to host short-term and part-time interactive wine, beer and cooking workshops thanks to a 40-seat classroom, and state-of-the-art teaching kitchen that was added to the original footprint of the nearly 140-year-old armoury.
The Aurora Armoury CFWI is connected to Town Park in Aurora and design elements were included to connect indoors and out. Photo by Tom Arban.
There’s also community and event space inside while outdoors, a patio has been added, connecting the building to Town Park, a green space in the heart of the community. A walk-up window is available to order food and drinks, including college-made wine and beer, to enjoy outside.
In addition, the design features four 10-by-10 doors to further connect indoors and out.
More than an architectural and design showpiece, however, the Aurora Armoury serves as an outpost for the CFWI, acting as both a recruitment hub for the college’s academic food and beverage programs and for NC as a whole, Youdale explained.
It will also offer plenty of educational opportunities to current culinary students by serving as a learning enterprise where they can further develop their skills.
“We hope this is also a space for co-op students and graduates to work as cooks in an event space and hospitality space,” Youdale said.
The Aurora Armoury CFWI was designed to host short-term and part-time interactive wine, beer and cooking workshops thanks to a 40-seat classroom, and state-of-the-art teaching kitchen that was added to the original footprint of the nearly 140-year-old armoury. Photo by Tom Arban.
An about-face
Credit for the stunning transformation of the provincial heritage building goes to Gow Hastings Architects, a Toronto firm specializing in the design of education and culinary spaces, including the CFWI’s most recent addition at the Daniel J. Patterson Campus at Niagara-on-the-Lake.
All in, it’s an about-face from the military drill shed it used to be. Built in 1874 as the home of the 12th Battalion of Infantry or York Rangers, the Aurora Armoury was declared surplus by Ottawa about 12 years ago.
The town bought the armoury and used it over the years as a support building for park activities. A former town councillor suggested staff consider developing a micro-brewery incubator in Aurora and an outreach to Niagara College led to the innovative partnership, with the original idea morphing into something much greater, explained Aurora CAO Doug Nadorozny.
“Things started to gel right from the beginning,” Nadorozny said about the partnership with the CFWI. “It was an exciting opportunity for both sides. The project has just been embraced by the local community. Instead of any opposition, even through construction, all we had was interest. People were looking in the windows throughout construction.”
While it’s been an easy sell for the community, converting the barn-like military building into an ultra-modern facility that honours its history wasn’t a simple feat, noted Jim Burkitt, design director at Gow Hastings.
The exterior of its former incarnation had three layers of siding to peel back. There was also a 10-foot, dropped drywall ceiling, which left designers guessing what was behind it.
“I’ll call it a wish that there was something interesting there,” Burkitt said.
It came true when renovation crews discovered a peaked wood ceiling that was part of the armoury’s original post-and-beam construction. It now features prominently in the event space that’s expected to be well used and overlooks a mature park that’s the town’s crown jewel.
The Aurora Armoury CFWI overlooking Town Park. Photo by Tom Arban.
“It’s just such a great project because lots of times, we work on projects and the future is 10 years away. That had a lot to do with having a fully functioning park with a mature stand of trees surrounding that we were able to save. We usually do not have the luxury of a mature landscape and usually must plant new,” Burkitt said.
“This is a very civic place and the community knows that park, and the armoury, for a long time, was not doing its civic part. All we had to do was breath some life into it… so immediately when it opened (in March 2020), save for the issues with the pandemic, it was ready to go and operate.”
Now that it’s an award-winning facility, the building and the college are likely to garner greater attention from the more than 2.5 million people living in the surrounding area, be they prospective students and their families or new visitors to the space, Youdale said.
“Even though it’s a community building with college designation, it continues that brand recognition … and it allows us to be who we are. We have that space to represent the college in the northern GTA,” he said. “We’re hoping over time this becomes an epicentre that allows us to message the NC brand through Toronto. Even thought it’s set up for the CFWI, we want to this to represent the college and college programs.”
