For our 606 studio, we were tasked with creating a new winery on the site of Frog’s Leap Winery in Napa Valley, California. The existing winery has been around for many years and consists of a small campus of buildings that function together to produce the brand’s own wine. Originally, the winery started off as just a single barn, constructed over 100 years ago. The original barn, although refitted for modern wine production, is still standing and is still used in production. Our studio was given free reign to either create an entirely new winery from nothing or to incorporate existing elements of the existing winery. Most students decided to start with a clean slate, but I personally felt it was essential to keep the original barn and to integrate it into the design of the new winery project. The barn, as well as its rustic vernacular, was the basis for my design and much of my choices. My design also kept the winery as a campus of buildings, rather than trying to be one large building.

We were lucky enough to travel to Napa Valley and tour the existing winery (complete with a tasting, I might add). When touring the winery, it was made clear by the employees how important sustainability was to the winery and the brand itself. The winery had been designed quite extensively to take advantage of Napa Valley’s ecosystem. The winery does not use any chemical treatments or fertilizers for their grapes or their gardens and instead relies on the natural strategies for their production. This includes having bird houses on site to control pests, using grey water for irrigation, as well as incorporating gardens around the site to add biodiversity and provide some natural-grown food for the people who work there. Although the buildings themselves on the winery were not particularly sustainable, it was made clear that our new designs should be as natural and sustainable as is allowed, which is the reason why hempcrete (hemp-based concrete, if you’re not familiar) and heavy timber were chosen as the main building materials for the majority of the project. Hempcrete, although weaker than traditional concrete, is carbon negative, pest resistant, and very porous, all of which is very suitable for a winery in Napa Valley.

Finally, as a challenge, our studio was also tasked with adding an additional program to the project apart from wine production and consumption. Before touring Napa Valley, I did not have an additional program in mind for the project. However, after visiting several wineries and driving around, I was struck at the lack of cultural spaces in Napa Valley. For a region of the country known for artisan production and wealth, there was strikingly little space for art in the form of galleries or museums. In fact, at the time of this project, there was only one dedicated art museum in Napa Valley, which I thought entirely insufficient for a region often claimed to be a cultural hub. I couldn’t speak for anyone else, but I find that art is often better enjoyed with a glass of wine (or most other drugs, for that matter) and vice reversa. I thought it would be a novel program idea to do art pairings with wine via several small gallery spaces, which became the theme of the largest and only two story building in my design.