A Q&A with Brett Kroening of The Boelter Companies
Before the Green Bay Packers kicked off season 101 at Lambeau Field, significant stadium renovations were made to upgrade the fan dining experience. Transformations at the club level resulted in a first-of-its-kind, open concept in a stadium environment. Yet, creating a space with visible fresh food preparation generated specific design, ventilation and aesthetic challenges – all of which were tackled by Project Manager and Designer Brett Kroening of The Boelter Companies along with Accurex, an industry-leading commercial kitchen ventilation system partner.
The outcome was remarkable. Robust, energy-efficient, back-of-house systems combined with a comfortable and convenient front-of-house environment resulted in the ultimate fan dining experience.
Q: What was the goal of this project?
Brett Kroening: We wanted to produce a foodservice operation that provided a better fan experience, better food quality and a better eating environment. The Marketplace was designed to create a new level of excitement with an attractive design that would generate a high level of fan interest while delivering exceptional food options.
With the open kitchen concept, Accurex hoods were a natural fit – giving an inside view of food preparation while keeping staff and fans in a consistently comfortable environment.
Q: What were the unique challenges with this and how did you come to choose Accurex for this project?
BK: Size restrictions, noise levels, the open kitchen concept and ensuring a safe environment for fans were all challenges.
Accurex was the perfect choice, and partner, for this project. They have a wide variety of design options and customizable choices associated with demand control packages. The Marketplace project was very technical and Accurex offered a simplified, cost-effective system that is code compliant. And their wall mounted controls interface provided the simplistic, intuitive design the facility needed.
Aesthetically pleasing Accurex hoods were a natural fit with overall design requirements, featuring fire suppression, Vari-Flow temperature sensors and industry-leading grease capture and removal capabilities.
Q: What were you looking for in a partner and vendor?
BK: Superior support and service because ventilation equipment must operate right. The complexity of the system is high, but because of the different components all coming from the same manufacturer, it simplified the process and everything worked great. Also, their team engagement and service network made Accurex a great choice – based on the availability to react very quickly and help us with any challenges that we had. Overall, this project went great. It was exciting to have everything come together and work as planned which meant our customer, the Green Bay Packers, was happy as well.
Accurex is proud to partner with Lambeau Field and The Boelter Company, providing the very best complete commercial kitchen ventilation systems in the industry.