7 minute read
Designed Like a Fine Wine
DESIGNED LIKE A FINE WINE
By STEF SCHWALB
The phrase “in vino veritas” translates to “in wine there is truth,” and when it comes to interior design projects, Theorem Winery has revealed an authentic way to making a working winery double as a hub for hospitality. Located in Napa Valley’s Diamond Mountain district, the 9,000-square-foot structure seamlessly combines fine winemaking, breathtaking views, lush gardens, and gorgeous custom fixtures. As a state-of-the-art winery that offers a curated visitor experience, design elements are critical to ensuring success. We spoke with representatives of two firms involved in the project—Katherine Schwertner AIA LEED AP, Technical Director, Richard Beard Architects, and Hiram Banks, IALD, LEEP AP, Principal, Banks Landl Lighting Design—for insights on the production facility where the tanks are housed; the barrel room where the wine is stored; and the tasting area where visitors can sip and savor the end results.
“The winery has a tasting room and they do some pairings, but it’s actually more a producing winery, so the idea was to keep it centrally located,” says Schwertner. “The site conditions had great views of both the vineyards and an existing chicken coop that’s now called the Long Bar—they turned it into a space to host weddings or other private events. They were using the existing spaces that they had and taking advantage of the views as well as the location and proximity to the vineyards.” In fact, location played a major factor in the design since so much natural light is present. With the winery’s workspace being an active one, careful consideration had to be taken with lighting choices. “The idea was to make it as residential as we could in the actual winery itself and the actual working area where the tanks are,” says Banks. To achieve this, there are two different layers of light: one that’s high ambient for working and another with beautiful, decorative fixtures and accenting so that the winery team can turn the lights down low and dramatic if there’s a tasting or event.
Photo Credit: Paul Dyer
When it came to the barrel room, Banks and his team wall washed all of treated concrete walls with LED lighting. “Just a soft wash down to provide ambient and soft lighting background for the space. Then you can see small little down lights above, which are lighting the two chairs and a table,” explains Banks. “It’s lots of layers of light so that it can be used like this when it’s for a tasting or event, or if they need to have it up for loading barrels or filling them.” There’s another layer that’s ambient light that’s high level if they want it as well, adds Banks. “The idea was that it had to be both because a lot of wineries don’t go for the second layer. They just do a work layer, and that’s it.” Additionally, Theorem opted to pay for a lighting control system that allows them to dim all the lights, which is a big expense. “Most wineries don’t do that, but because this is a private winery and they want to do their own events, they paid to have that so they can step down and turn stuff off.” For Schwertner, it’s the simplicity in the combination of the storage of the barrels, the concrete, and the light at one end—that gives visitors a little bit of a view— which makes that space special. “The client was very involved in the selection of the decorative light fixtures so while you had this sort of rough and raw interior,” Schwertner notes, “she had that,” explains Banks. “There’s also an aesthetic that interior designers do in terms of colors and furniture, so we need to make sure we clearly understand that.” On this job, he adds, it was interesting because the chosen pendants are quite modern and clean, but because they’re so clean and modern, they can kind of go anywhere because the hospitality areas are much more specialized and traditional. “I think the other thing is because this is a working winery, we had to make sure that we design it so that it can actually work for the workers that are crushing the grapes and filling the tanks. That’s why the layers were very important for us to put in.”
Photo Credit: Paul Dyer
Photo Credit: Paul Dyer
Meanwhile in Schwertner’s case, the principles of modernism in architecture—bringing the outside in, bringing more light into the spaces, framing views—as well as sustainability, site orientation, and materiality are all key components. “The orientation is, how are you going to work with the Southern exposure versus Northern? The light that comes from the North is very different than from the South, so you might have overhangs on the South elevation and no overhangs or less of an overhang on the North façade,” she explains. Since Schwertner and her team have always believed in longevity, they try to select materials that are going to last for a long time rather than require a lot of maintenance. They also always strive to provide large openings. “I think in the winery, because of the scale of the building, having big openings makes a lot of sense,” she notes. “The odd thing is this building was a prefabricated building, which we kind of changed it a little bit so it wouldn’t look like a big box store; but the key to this project was having very simple forms as well as very large openings and big sliding doors, which gives you that lightness, spaciousness, and airiness that one wouldn’t think is going to be part of a winery.”
Photo Credit: Paul Dyer
Photo Credit: Paul Dyer
Of course, the clients are the most important part of a project’s success, Schwertner adds, and in this case, she says the client was terrific to work with and very decisive. “We worked well with her and we were able to build the project in a very short period of time, comparatively speaking,” she says. Managing the flow was another part of ensuring success, and that entailed working in coordination with the winery, winery manager, winemaker, and sommelier to make sure the circulation through the building worked well for everybody. “In this case it was instrumental to have the woman that manages the winery involved,” Schwertner says, “because she was instrumental in helping us make decisions.”
As far as trends Banks is seeing in the lighting industry right now, the biggest one continues to be the rise of LEDs—which is what was utilized in the Theorem Winery project. “They are so energy efficient, and while there’s a lot of technical requirements compared to an incandescent or fluorescent light source, you have to wonder how can you use that source creatively,” muses Banks. “We’re noticing that LEDs have gotten smaller, and it’s allowed us to do things we couldn’t do before. That’s where lighting is headed—towards being smaller, more efficient, with a longer life.” ■
