The interior of SUNY Broome's Culinary & Event Center
The interior of SUNY Broome’s Culinary & Event Center

SUNY Broome is inviting those who worked in the former Carnegie Library for a special tour of the new Culinary and Event Center at 11 a.m. Feb. 4.

The $21.5 million project represents a transformation and a preservation of the historic building, which opened in 1904 and housed what became the Broome County Public Library for 96 years. By 2000, the library had outgrown its space and moved to its current location just blocks away.

In case of inclement weather, the tour will be postponed to 11 a.m. Feb. 6. The building is located at 78 Exchange St. Parking is available around the corner at the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator at 120 Hawley St.

The CEC will open for the Spring 2020 semester and house the college’s popular Hospitality programs, which include Culinary Arts, Event Management, Lodging and Casino Management, and Restaurant Management. 

It features state-of-the-art amenities such as garde manger, production and demonstration kitchens, a fully equipped beverage lab for mixology classes, a full-dining room, a state-of-the-art lecture hall for cooking demonstrations, high-tech classroom space, and more. Originally built in 1903 in the Classical Beaux-Arts style, the building contains many historic touches, from the plaster to the painstakingly restored woodwork, a terrazzo floor with a Grecian key pattern, and two faux fireplaces in the main-floor student lounge.