With state-of-the-art equipment and a sleek new building, Urban Stead Cheese has taken the production of artisan cheeses to a new level. The company's new creamery, located in Cincinnati, OH's Evanston neighborhood, was constructed using insulated metal wall panels from Kingspan Insulated Panels North America to provide not only an optimal production environment, but one that looks good too.  

Designed by Sanitary Design Industries, Urban Stead Cheese is an 8,300-square foot food manufacturing facility complete with a “raw room” where it receives milk, a production room, aging rooms, a packing room and a finished-goods cooler. There's also an area for guests to enjoy all Urban Stead Cheese has to offer.

In designing Urban Stead, Sanitary Design Industries focused primarily on the building envelope. Company president Neville McNaughton used 7,947 square feet of KS Shadowline insulated metal panels from Kingspan in a stainless-steel finish for the walls and ceiling throughout the facility.

Using 3M Polyurethane Sealant Adhesive 540 in gray, the joints were sealed inside and out creating a smooth finished look. Not only does this create a great aesthetic, but the smooth-finish panels have an added benefit of easy cleaning, something especially necessary when dealing with food.

“The KS Shadowline panels are the go-to because of the material. We want that smooth finish with no embossing on the surface.” says McNaughton. “Embossed stainless-steel is not the easiest thing to keep looking good, even though it’s incredibly functional. That’s why we like the smooth; it’s very easy to keep clean.”

Using Kingspan panels also allowed for monolithic walls and ceilings, giving the installer complete control of the envelope, including vapor barriers, water barriers and sanitary finishes where needed. Traditional wood or steel frame construction usually have a cavity filled with insulation, plumbing and electrical conduit, which can damage the envelope over time.

The panels were chosen primarily because of their benefit to the building envelope, but there’s an added bonus – the R-value they provide.

“We’ve got more R-Value in that building than we really needed,” said McNaughton. “It certainly gives us a very stable facility, so I don’t have to worry about any thermal issues between aging rooms.”

The production room is kept around 75 degrees, the aging rooms are 50-60 degrees and the cooler operates at 36 degrees. In the floors, the building is designed with thermal breaks beneath the walls so there is no carryover from the slab.

“What they have at Urban Stead is really a premium solution,” said McNaughton. “The panels are an absolute deluxe end-product, especially when compared with stick construction - which we don’t consider to be food-grade.”