Walla Walla, Wash. -- On Nov. 2, Walla Walla's Waters Winery will welcome the public to its new $2 million, 5,000-square-foot winemaking facility and tasting room. Previously, Waters shared space at Saviah Cellars and operated a tasting room in downtown Walla Walla. Best known for its Syrahs and a Bordeaux-style blend called Interlude, Waters currently produces 3,000 cases of wine per year. The new facility will allow the winery to increase production to 5,000 cases.

Architect Joe Chauncey of Seattle's Boxwood Architects, who has designed for Col Solare, Hightower and Brian Carter Cellars, took cues from the agricultural design of the 19th century and clad the new facility in masonry and rusted steel panels. According to Chauncey, sustainability was a primary driver of the design and layout of the two separate buildings.

Natural lighting and views

"In the production building, a large linear skylight drops northern light into the fermentation room and then indirectly into the two separate barrel rooms," he said. "This skylight reduces the need for artificial lighting during most of the day and can reduce power supplied for lighting systems by up to two-thirds while providing a bright, naturally lit work space." Glass doors supplement the daylight and provide the same views for the working areas as in the tasting room.

"Daylight and views contribute greatly to increased production and improved health of staff," Chauncey said. "It has also been proven that products displayed under natural light sell better than the same product displayed under artificial light."

Temperature stability

The barrel aging rooms are surrounded by 17-inch-thick, insulated concrete masonry. This provides mass, an important component in reducing temperature swings. "Reduced temperature swings translates into reduced cooling loads," Chauncey explained. "Reduced cooling loads means lower utility bills, but it also means something else that is even more important. It results in less evaporation from the barrel and more wine in bottles. … In another Boxwood winery where mass walls were used, the cooling equipment was left off for a week in the middle of the summer and the temperature did not rise above 58 degrees."

Augmenting the masonry walls is a large protective roof over the crush pad, which shades the barrel room. The lab and office space insulate the barrel room from the late afternoon sun. The high ceilings also draw heat away from the barrels and tanks, and from visitors in the tasting room.

Waters plans to add a subterranean barrel room, which will double production and storage capacity with the advantage of natural temperature stability.

Sustainable materials

One of the most sustainable aspects of the building, Chauncey said, is its use of only a few building materials. "The building is very simple with exposed structure and concrete floors, even in the tasting room where the floor is used in the winter to store heat from the sun's raysand re-radiated in the afternoon when the temperature drops," he said. "The main steel structure has as much as 80% recycled content. The steel decking, siding and roofing material are made up of as much as 30% recycled content."

The wood framed walls are constructed with engineered lumber fabricated from rapidly renewable trees. "From an embodied energy standpoint, the materials used are at the low end of the energy scale," Chauncey said.

Boxwood began design of the new winery and tasting room in June of 2006. Ketelsen Construction, Walla Walla, Wash., was the project's contractor.

Waters Winery will officially open its doors to the public for an open house party on Nov. 2, from 5-8 p.m. It is located at 1825 JB George Rd., in Walla Walla. For more information, call (509) 525-1590 or visit www.waterswinery.com.