The Mori Hosseini Center at Daytona Beach College

University Business, March, 2008

TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY ARE BIG BUSINESS IN Daytona Beach, Fla., and now this city's community college has an eye-catching facility to help prepare students for work in the industry.

* FUNCTION: The School of Hospitality and Culinary Management (with classrooms and labs, three instructional kitchens, a "high-def" demo kitchen for broadcasting lessons, a 125-seat restaurant, and five hotel rooms with a registration area), and the Southeast Museum of Photography (with gallery space, work areas, and an 82-seat movie theater)

* PROBLEM: An elementary school purchased in 1992 and then remodeled had served both the hospitality and culinary programs. Its single small kitchen and public dining area made teaching difficult. And with classes maxing out at 12 students, "it really limited the growth of the program," says Jeff Conklin, director of DBC's Culinary Management Program. In addition, the campus of this community college needed an impressive gateway. "We were well off of the main road, so it looked like a large parking lot for a mall," says Steven Eckman, director of Facilities Planning.

* SOLUTIONS: A new hospitality and culinary facility built over some of that parking lot has provided needed space, plus room to grow. Conklin says it actually takes culinary students less time to clean up after class than in the much smaller original kitchen. The restaurant is now open an additional day per week, as well as one evening. In the hospitality area of the building, students can practice their guest relations skills on actual guests, including friends of the college such as potential new faculty members.

The designers strove for multipurpose use in many areas of the facility, explains architect Joe Sorci. Its large lobby, for one, can be divided into smaller sections for restaurant events, museum special exhibits, or training and instructional activities.

It was key that the facility look sophisticated to those driving by on the main road. Serving as a campus front door, the facility "looks like a resort and feels like a resort," Eckman says. Sorci points to a trellis patio and ornamental metal details, traditional Mediterranean design elements, a large banner space used as an event marquee, a fountain (which uses a storm water collection system), and lush landscaping as resortlike details.

Not surprisingly, enrollment is booming. DBC as a whole has at least 10 percent more students this year, and the hospitality program has more than doubled in less than a year, from about 100 students to about 280, Conklin says, adding that there are now five full-time faculty instructors and three lab technicians, compared to the full-time teaching staff of one in the old facility.

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

* COST: $26 million (approximately $14 million raised from private local donations and matching funds from the state)

* TIMELINE: Occupied August 2007, grand opening November 2007 (which served as kickoff for the college's 50th anniversary celebration)

* PROJECT TEAM: FLA/Florida Architects, PPI Construction Management--M.E.