Wine Time:
Natural light is key to winery’s new corporate offices
Marcy Marro, Managing Editor,
Posted
08/01/2011
Founded in 1990 by Ron and Jamie McManis, the McManis Family
Vineyards in Ripon, Calif., is a grower and vintner of premium wine
grapes and wines. The fourth generation of family farmers, the
McManis family has been growing grapes in the Northern Interior of
California since 1938. In addition to owning and operating more
than 2,600 acres of winegrapes split between Ripon and Lodi,
Calif., services include processing, small lot fermentation, oak
adjuncts and traditional barrel fermentation.
When the McManis family decided they needed a new
corporate office, they turned to Stockton, Calif.-based general
contractor Roland Construction Inc., whom they have worked with for
more than 12 years. "Besides the corporate offices, Roland has
built seven other structures at this facility, including two
press/crush roof structures, one filtration roof structure, three
barrel and case good storage warehouses, and a maintenance/storage
building," says Jim Hoagland, president of Roland Construction.
"Off-site, Roland has worked on two agricultural shop buildings
that support the vineyard operation, including one currently under
construction."
Completed in December 2010, the new 4,400-square-foot
single-story corporate office building is built with rich, warm
materials. Serving as the centerpiece and visual anchor of the
winery property, the architecturally distinct facility is designed
to support both administration and farming operations.
Additionally, the building has a separate delivery entrance located
adjacent to the truck scale to accommodate check-in and weighing
functions, along with restroom facilities for the drivers. Enhanced
with large wood entry doors, the corporate office entrance features
an upswept roof, stone columns and stamped concrete.
"The building is the public face of the winery, and the message
that the owners wanted the building to express was a functional,
non-ostentatious, environmentally responsible project," says the
designer, Larry Wenell of WMB Architects, Stockton, Calif.
All of the buildings, including the corporate office, are a
pre-engineered steel frame construction with metal roofing and wall
panels with matching colors to the family of buildings, explains
Hoagland.
Inside, skewered walls enhance the entrance of each individual
office, while maintaining clear view to the truck scale. Skylights
in the hall and a light shelf on the south wall flood the interior
spaces with natural lighting, while the main lobby features wall
niches displaying the owner's award-winning wines.
For the project, Roland Construction utilized a pre-engineered
metal building system from Varco Pruden Buildings, Memphis, Tenn.,
and metal wall panels from Kingspan Insulated Panels Inc., Deland,
Fla. The building features 6,400 square feet of AP- 900
4-inch-thick (R-32) urethane foamed panel with a 26-guage Energy
Star rated embossed Evergreen Valspar Fluropon PVDF exterior
finish; 2,500 square feet of AP-300A 2-inch-thick (R-16) urethane
foamed panel with a 24-gauge Azteco embossed Surrey Beige Valspar
Fluropon PVDF finish; and 2,200 square feet of AP-200 2-inch-thick
(R-16) urethane foamed panels with a 24-gauge embossed Surrey Beige
Valspar Fluropon PVDF finish. The Fluropon PVDF finish is
manufactured by Valspar, Minneapolis.
The steel columns of the building structure are outboard and
wrapped in stone veneer, allowing for metal stud shear walls and
clean lines inside. At the skylights, the rafters are wrapped with
wood. The roof is 4-inch-thick (R-32) 900 Series insulated panels
with an Energy Star rated Green color. Exterior walls are
Hardie-textured siding with 2-inch-thick (R-18) 200 Series
insulated wall panels above.
"The major design challenge was the program
requirements of designing all the offices with a direct view up to
the scale house desk; designing all the offices with open views
into other offices; and providing natural lighting and shared
lighting," Wenell says. "These led to the saw tooth layout of the
offices where every office can see the scale house desk through a
glass door, can see opposite offices through windows and shared
light from the light shelves, and skylight filters through
high-transom windows."
While the owners decided not to pursue LEED certification, the
office building incorporates energyefficient design and systems.
"The steel framing of the building, along with other finish
materials are high in recycled content; the HVAC system is a
highefficiency type and is zoned for the differing exposure of the
building; the lighting is multileveled and is controlled to take
advantage of the abundant natural light provided by the light
shelves and skylights," explains Wenell. Additionally, the offices
feature low emitting finishes for paints, sealants and carpets, and
the majority of the floor is polished concrete.
"The most visible 'green' design strategy is the orientation of
the building and roots to optimize the natural lighting," says
Hoagland. "The light shelf on the south side is designed to shade
the lower windows and reflect light upward without allowing direct
sunlight into the spaces."
The triple-glazed fixed skylights are Model 800IB from Sunoptics
Skylights, Sacramento, Calif. "In this case, we fabricated [the
light shades and shelves] on-site with steel studs and finished
with materials to match the building's construction," Wenell says.
"The design was based upon December 21's winter sun altitudes on
the south elevation, allowing light to reflect into the rooms
through the clearstory windows without the need for an adjustable
shading system."