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.”
