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Boston, MA Shawmut Design and Construction, a leading construction management firm, has completed the fit-out of Future Chefs’ new location for its youth empowerment and culinary training program at The Clarion, located at 305 Blue Hill Ave.
Designed by Kennard Architects, Shawmut built out the 5,750 s/f first-floor space to create an open and fluid home for Future Chefs, where the organization uses positive youth development and a work-based learning model to engage teens and provide life skills and knife skills training. Using cooking as a medium, Future Chefs provides youth with career development and mentorship to empower teens to build a plan for life after high school. The large training kitchen is the focal point of the space, surrounded by individual classrooms, a small cookline and kitchenette, dishwashing room, conference room, and locker area.
“Building on our relationship that began in the early days of our organization, Future Chefs and Shawmut Design and Construction imagined a space where we could push our mission forward and do our work in a high quality, beautiful space,” said executive director, Toni Elka. “Our values align and we appreciate Shawmut’s investment in Future Chefs and in the community.”
Future Chefs’ new home is an industrial-style space, bright and light-filled with a glass storefront that wraps around one side of the building. The tile on the walls and sealed concrete floors are juxtaposed with glazed brick and a high-end cookline. Exposed mechanical, engineering, and plumbing units are installed in the ceiling, with suspended Autex Acoustics 3D “cloud” ceiling panels providing visual interest and noise control.
Throughout the space, design details take their cue from culinary tools. Inspired by a spatula, the long cantilevered reception desk was realized by Kennard Architects through surfboard fabrication and boat-building technique exploration. The desk splits where it meets the wall and continues on each side—half within a conference room and the other along the entry corridor.
The training kitchen is open, filled with natural light, and includes a feature garage door that leads out to an additional training room. Within the kitchen is a demo island made with structural glazed brick, and the workstations for students each include an overhead dropdown cord reel for equipment.
“Shawmut and Future Chefs have a longstanding partnership dating back to the construction of its headquarters in Boston,” said Kevin Sullivan, executive vice president of Shawmut Design and Construction. “To once again work with our friends at Future Chefs to create a first-class learning environment for its culinary program, knowing the positive impact it’ll have on its students, is a great honor.”
Shawmut built Future Chefs’ previous headquarters at 560 Albany St. in 2012. Together, the two companies were named as Boston Business Journal’s 2013 “Corporate Citizenship Partners of the Year.”
Shawmut Design and Construction is a national construction management firm with a reputation for completing extremely complex and logistically challenging projects for the most high-profile clients in the industry. As an ESOP (employee-owned) company, Shawmut has created a culture of ownership. 80% of its business comes from repeat clients, proving there is a strong focus on building lasting partnerships.