Located just west of downtown Paso Robles, Calif., the 10,000-case capacity Law Family Winery sits on 45 acres across the street from its 250 acres of vineyards. To support their vision of gravity flow winemaking, in which no pumps or mechanical forces are utilized and the wine flows from one level to another during the winemaking process, winery proprietors Don and Susie Law called upon San Francisco-based BAR Architects to design a new facility that would provide winery production, barrel storage, a tasting room and administrative offices.
The Laws wanted the facility to reflect the excellence of the brand and enhance the marketing of the wine. The challenge was to work with the property slopes and ridgeline to take advantage of indoor-outdoor spaces, potential barrel caves, views and other opportunities to make visiting the winery and tasting room an extraordinary experience.
“Our design goal was to reinforce this new wine brand that they were creating,” says Jeff Goodwin, AIA, LEED AP, at BAR Architects. “Their brand was going to focus on Rhône blends, with the goal to make the very best wine possible from this steep and beautiful, but rocky hilltop property.”
So Goodwin designed a modern, yet understated building that was both durable in the materials used and integrated seamlessly into the site. The client desired the ability to point from the tasting room out toward the vineyards where the grapes are harvested, and the resulting linear building is located just off the natural ridgeline, nestled into the hillside. This design provides views of the vineyards to the north, while allowing for flat areas for grape delivery and visitor parking, and below-grade storage areas.
With the facility design, Goodwin aimed to respect the agrarian context of the landscape by using simple building forms that articulated its specific program uses and functional needs, but to do this with more contemporary materials and building forms. “Just like an old farm that was created over time, I organized things in a way that created outdoor spaces that were functional and responded to programmatic needs,” he says.
To visually showcase this integration, the winery is benched into the hillside. Goodwin explains that the Corten-clad entry wall expresses the building carved out of the earth. An angled concrete wall that runs perpendicular to the Corten wall represents the sightline from the winery to the vineyard on the other side of the road.
“The exterior rusted Corten provided a natural finish to both blend and complement the balance of finishes as well as integrate with the landscape features also using similar metal selections,” says Steve Haymaker, vice president of Specialty Construction Inc., San Luis Obispo, Calif., the general contractor.
CBC Steel Buildings, Lathrop, Calif., supplied clear-span/hybrid western frame pre-engineered metal building main frames for the project, while All Weather Insulated Panels, a Vicwest company, Vacaville, Calif., supplied 2 1/2-inch insulated metal roof and wall panels that provide a clean interior finish surface. Phoenix-based Western States Decking supplied the Corten steel that was utilized in a rainscreen system with 24-gauge galvanized Nu-Wave metal panels from AEP Span, Fontana, Calif.
Steel provided a cost-effective schedule and architecturally unique features that blend well with more conventional concrete, glass and plaster finishes, says Haymaker. “The pre-engineered metal building structure allowed for this with the clear-span frames, unique frame profiles and steel mezzanine structures constructed over the fermentation tanks.”
The project had challenging site conditions, explains Haymaker, since it was built on a hilltop with very limited access. By utilizing pre-engineered metal buildings, Specialty Construction was able to pre-fabricate everything, bring it on-site and erect it more efficiently.
Energy efficiency was another project goal. The tiered design of the gravity flow winery reduces energy demands. In gravity flow winemaking, the highest level is where the grapes arrive, are sorted and crushed. From there, the grapes are dumped directly into the tops of the fermenters, located at mid-level. After fermentation, the wine goes into barrel storage, which is located at the lowest level. From barrel storage the wine goes through a process of blending and bottling. Each level is 10 feet lower than the previous one, which saves electrical costs for pumping and facilitates a gentler winemaking process. Additionally, Goodwin notes, because the barrel storage is subterranean, it takes advantage of the earth’s natural insulation and cooling properties.
Since the sorting and crushing of the grapes occurs during the hottest months
of September and October, Goodwin designed a large butterfly roof to cover the processing area, protecting the workers and the fruit from sun exposure. The butterfly roof also permits hot air to escape, and with the large portion of the roof facing north, allows for good natural daylighting. With maximum southern exposure, the butterfly roof is also set up for the installation of photovoltaic panels. Finally, Goodwin says, it gives a visible expression of the rainwater harvesting taking place at the winery.
The Design Award judges were impressed with how the buildings came together and didn’t resemble an ordinary pole barn. The flared columns of the traditional pre-engineered structure, along with the unique butterfly roof, were noted for how they trusted the architectural program.
Law Family Winery, Paso Robles, Calif.
Completed: December 2013
Square footage: 23,778 square feet
Architect: BAR Architects, San Francisco
General contractor: Specialty Construction Inc., San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Metal installers: Specialty Construction and A. Mills Construction, Atascadero, Calif.
Corten steel: Western States Decking, Phoenix
Daylighting: Kalwall Corp., Manchester, N.H.
Metal building: CBC Steel Buildings, Lathrop, Calif.
Metal wall and roof panels: AEP Span, Fontana, Calif., and All Weather Insulated Panels, a Vicwest company, Vacaville, Calif.