Cornell’s Dairy Bar, a student favorite that sells a variety of Cornell-produced ice cream, will come closer to the hustle and bustle of Central Campus next summer. On June 18, the Dairy Bar will relocate to Kennedy Hall’s Trillium Express, and will return to an enlarged Stocking Hall location with expanded seating when the first phase of the renovation concludes in 2013.

In September 2010, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will begin construction on a $105 million building project to renovate the 86-year-old Stocking Hall and replace its “runway” section, the Dairy Bar, and the Dairy Plant — all of which line Tower Road — with a four-story, high-tech enclosure. The endeavor will replace the college’s dairy processing plant with a new facility that provides improved research and production space, and refurbish the aging laboratories and classrooms of the historical building.

The project, which will unfold over four years, is the brainchild of Mitchell / Giurgola Architects, whose vision includes a multi-story, steel and glass structure that runs parallel to Tower Road. The current design calls for the substantial use of glass on the street-facing side of the building, which would allow passers-by to directly view the production processes occurring inside.

“You are going to be able to walk down Tower Road and see everything being made,” said Jason Huck, general manager of the Dairy Plant. Within the building, Cornell ice cream, milk, pudding and yogurt will move from processing to pasteurization to packaging, according to the University. “There are not many places in the country where you can see that,” Huck said.

The new design will also house ground-floor laboratories for enology and food-sensory studies. According to the University, the new space will allow guests to better understand the production processes of Cornell’s nationally top-ranked food science program.

“We have a mission to serve New York State and the food industry [and] our goal is to make the movement of food from the farm to the table completely transparent,” said Prof. Kathryn Boor, chair of the department of food sciences.

The 86-year-old “tower” portion of Stocking Hall on Wing Road will remain intact but receive extensive renovations, and the food science lab will serve as a food processing research facility in the interim. The makeover is to have more of an impact on research than production, as the newly outfitted laboratories there will study connections between food and human health, food safety and food and biomaterial processing. The renovation will also introduce a campus teaching winery and a crush pad for viticulture and enology students, according to the University.

Welcome to Stocking Hall

A major reason for the large-scale renewal is the antiquated state of CALS research and production facilities within Stocking Hall.

The renovation project will also ameliorate both Cornell-based operations and the regional agricultural economy, according to Boor.

“Because our program conducts research and outreach aimed at improving dairy product quality and safety and wine quality, this renovation project will directly contribute to improving the viability of the New York dairy and wine industries, which are typified by family-owned and -operated businesses,” Boor told the University.

Huck echoed these sentiments.

“The redesign of Stocking Hall will improve our efficiency and aid our primary function of supporting research, teaching, and extension. We partner with large companies to help with research and development and provide technical support [but] we also want to encourage regional agricultural business,” Huck said. “This project has been a long time coming.”