Industrial aesthetic
To meet increasing demand for its products, Woodinville Whiskey in Quincy, Washington needed a larger facility to process and age its whiskey. A 10-acre site set amidst the fields of grain used to produce the company’s whiskey was selected for a multi-phase expansion that consolidates operations as well as provides space for continued development. The initial phase of the expansion features a processing and bottling building, which also houses new corporate offices, and a barrel rickhouse for aging the whiskey.
Design Philosophy
The large-scale buildings range from 12 to 21 meters-wide by 120 meters-long, establishing a monumental presence within the fields that surround the site. Despite their size, the structures are an exercise in restraint, taking design inspiration from the simple agricultural and industrial warehouses found in the region, as well as from traditional ricking houses found throughout the American South. Inspired by the distillery’s production and tasting facility in Woodinville, Washington, the client’s directive required balancing functional and industrial requirements while clearly conveying the Woodinville Whiskey brand. Architectural forms are simple, with functional aspects such as vehicle circulation as well as loading and unloading dictating the site’s layout and the buildings’ scale.
Functional Layout & Construction
Leveraging the economy of prefabricated metal buildings, a series of manufactured structures provided a cost-effective way to create ample amounts of space, while still preserving opportunities for customization. During the building process, the entry is defined by a slim canopy that appears to fold up and peel away from the building, revealing a corten-clad inner core and a large off-center pivot door. The transition between office and process areas is demarcated with a long vertical window that folds from wall to ceiling, transforming into a skylight. Horizontal windows on the north wall of the processing area frame the adjacent agricultural landscape and farmstead. An array of rooftop skylights provides natural daylighting into the processing space, while south-facing photovoltaic rooftop panels deliver a renewable source of electricity. Finally, a tasting room overlooking the processing area as well as the fields of rye, corn and wheat is planned for future construction.
Materials & Custom Details
Maintaining the simple, rectilinear form gabled form and dark brown hue of the Woodinville distillery, the new complex consists of buildings clad in dark metal siding and Kebony wood. Large corten-clad sliding barn doors and bands of steel evoke the warmth and character of the whiskey. Highly crafted details are strategically situated at the forefront of the building’s design. Selected elements demolished at the Woodinville distillery are salvaged and repurposed for the new complex, thus creating a conceptual and physical link between the new facility and the distillery.
Situated in a region where the environmental conditions are ideal for aging whiskey, the rickhouses are uninsulated and unconditioned to maximize the temperature swings that support the aging process. On the exterior, a huge “Woodinville Whiskey Co.” sign is rendered as a semi-transparent super-graphic painted onto the north façade of the building, inspired by signage found on the sides of distilleries and rickhouses throughout rural and agricultural regions from Kentucky to Scotland.