On Jan. 19, a current, simplified floor plan for the building was shared with stakeholders. Click here to download the floor plan.

The plan will continue to change over time, in response to design team decisions, comments from the 35% design review and other feedback as the project progresses to 100% design.

The document contains three pages—ground floor, first floor and second floor. Space is color-coded to denote CDR space (blue), dairy plant space (red) and shared (yellow). Some of the key updates/changes are annotated in the plan itself—items one through eight.

Below are some items of note:

• The current plan is similar to what was presented in October. The ground floor includes instructional spaces for CDR, including an auditorium and food application labs, as well as an employee lounge and shower/locker rooms to be shared by CDR and Babcock Hall Dairy Plant personnel. Plans also provide for the expansion of the current sweetwater system so that it can be active during construction and beyond. The first floor accommodates all Dairy Plant functions, including raw ingredient movement. It also includes CDR space for raw process, thermal process and cheese production, including specialty cheese ripening rooms. The second floor has space for the CDR’s membrane filtration equipment, a large high-bay area for the center’s spray dryer and room for future UHT/aseptic applications, as well as CDR offices and an observation window into the dairy plant.
• The facility has three loading docks. One is for general, non-food deliveries to and from Babcock Hall, including the exit of all waste/recycling. The second is for the receipt of food-related items and the shipment of finished dairy products. The third, located on the facility’s west side, is for equipment coming in and out of the CDR for use in specific research projects, as needed. The building also has a separate, drive-through milk intake.
• The Dairy Plant’s cooler and freezer have been moved to the west side of the plant. The new layout helps accommodate better process flow and preserves future options for facility updates. Coolers and freezers for restocking the Dairy Store are located on the east side of the plant, and enable Dairy Store staff to access their cold storage without entering the Dairy Plant facility. To clarify a related point: Dairy Plant and Dairy Store coolers and freezers were included in the original scope of the project, but not fully covered by the project’s initial budget. This has been remedied by an allocation of $1.2M from UW-Madison campus leadership, which is specifically targeted for expenses associated with freezer/cooler replacement for the plant and store, and also for improving the loading docks to the existing Babcock Hall.

Milestone date: January 19, 2017