Founded in 1975, the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) is a private for-profit culinary school based in New York City. The award-winning school offers a variety of culinary and hospitality career training and professional certificate programs. In keeping up with the ever-changing needs of the industry and their students, the school wanted to create a new facility that would support their educational goals and be flexible enough to keep up with evolving culinary requirements. Previously sprawled across five floors on 23rd Street, ICE engaged TPG to work on the relocation of their facilities to a single floor at Brookfield Place in Lower Manhattan.

The newly designed space encompasses 74,000 square feet, with views of the Hudson River to the west and One World Trade Center to the east. TPG’s program strategically locates many classrooms and offices on the interior, and the student lounge and large demonstration kitchens on the perimeter, all with abundant light and views. The school’s spacious demonstration kitchens support the needs of its aspiring chefs, and are also used for taped video segments and corporate entertaining events.

In addition to the school’s 12 teaching kitchens and six lecture rooms, TPG incorporated specialty areas such as an event space, retail store, food storage, and stewarding areas into the institute’s floorplan. The new facility also features a multitude of unique amenities including a library, a mixology bar for training bartenders, a bean-to-bar chocolate lab, a wine cellar, a hydroponic herb and vegetable garden, and a culinary technology lab.

Working closely with ICE, TPG designed their new campus to support creativity and community, encouraging innovation and learning. Beyond their professional programs, ICE’s new facility allows for hands-on recreational cooking, baking, and wine education classes.