This Culinary Institution has the site of the downtown Charlottesville, Virginia pedestrian mall which leans heavily towards privatized business versus open and usable public space. The culinary institute attempts to aid this by having a mix of both private and public spaces. The form of the building being two central boxes serves to differentiate these two areas along with the varying programs of the institute; Which include a student kitchen, dwellings, and library, as well as a public restaurant, bathrooms, and rooftop bar. However, despite being separated into different boxes, they remain through a series of ramps and meandering staircases between the two masses. This allows for the viewing of the student kitchen by the restaurant customers as they move along the paths. Lastly, the materiality of the structure was chosen to emphasize the public-private nature by having an outer frosted box that obscures the spaces and people inside.
