“What would a farmer do?” That was the question Chris Brown and his team at the Portland, Oregon, architecture firm Observation Studio asked themselves when they conceptualized the new, 1,675-square-metre location of Sequitur winery. They had an enviable starting point: namely, a wonderful client and a stunning former dairy farm boasting a heavy-timber barn built in 1937. With its rusty red hue and traditional gabled roof – and built with Douglas Fir and cedar trees from the immediate surroundings – the barn would become the “soul” of the project, as Brown explains. “The evidence of the original farmer was so pervasive, even though the barn had fallen into disrepair. The building was also the centre of the project in practical terms: It houses the fermentation hall, which is the centre of activity for a winery.”
The label behind the prestigious Beaux Freres Upper Terrace pinot noir, the Newberg, Oregon, vintner Sequitur Wine is a legend; its owners, Michael Etzel and Carey Critchlow, had taken over a pig farm to build out their renowned vineyard in Chehalem Valley, which is surrounded by a Douglas Fir forest that they invested themselves in preserving. When they decided to craft a new custom crush production facility and tasting room on a nearby agricultural plot, which they named Etzel Farm, they sought out a firm that was young and hungry – but also good at collaborating with the owners on their vision. From a list of contenders, Observation Studio stood out. “In the end, we were able to impart our message: That we’d bring an incredible level of attention to this project.”
And that they did. The endeavour began with the restoration of the barn. Working with building partner A D Construction, the team lifted the structure, demolished its compromised foundation and rebuilt it, and then set it back down again. It’s now a thriving facility, its open ceiling a continuous line of raw tree-trunk beams under a skylit peak roof. Two other existing structures were integrated into the new scheme: a wood-clad silo and a former milk shed. The latter was rebuilt from the bottom up, all of its original materials, including its terracotta construction blocks, restored. Painted white, it now houses the restrooms for the winery.
When designing the handsome collection of new gable-roofed structures that envelope the barn and milk shed, Brown and his team turned to the existing structures’ striking craftsmanship. “We were inspired by the woodworking joints of the barn and the ancillary structures, which included two lean-tos that had to be taken down,” he says. The scarf joint became the perfect metaphor for how to understand the site, and how these new buildings could swirl around the barn and be “experientially held together” by it.
Constructed from trees felled and milled onsite, the new buildings house wine production facilities; living quarters for interns who arrive from around the world to work the harvest season; and wine-tasting and entertaining spaces for visitors. Capacious openings carved out of their low-slung forms, they feature dramatic pitched roofs with overhangs that knit them together and provide covered outdoor spaces for wine-making (a must in harvest season, when the temperature can rise from seven to 27 degrees Celsius between morning and evening and conditions fluctuate from sunny to rainy).
The tasting room building boasts the boldest gable of all – a cantilever that hugs the milk-shed/washroom building and extends to cast its footing down on the buttressed concrete foundations of a silage building that once stood on the site. “The pinwheeling roofs extend and capture exterior spaces and become ordering devices – they do a lot of work practically and architecturally,” says Brown. This is agricultural vernacular, impeccably executed and updated in a contemporary language.
On the level of detail, the architectural language shines through in the custom truss design that animates the undersides of these soaring asymmetrical gables: Rough sawn, textured wood members are coupled with steel connections to signal a thoroughly contemporary construction. “It creates a beautiful profile and pretty proportions,” says Brown.
The buildings are clad in corrugated weathering metal, an elegant, tailored material that develops a protective rust coating that makes yet another nod to the barn and to the place itself. The iron-rich soil of Chehalem Valley fosters an ideal terroir and gives the Douglas Fir trees in this area their ruddy hue; and barns here have been traditionally finished with white paint mixed with rust to give it that quintessential barn-red colour – as well as to protect it against insects. Once again, it’s a mix of soulfulness and practicality.
The interiors continue the dialogue between past and present. And, like the rest of the project, they constitute a masterclass in material re-use. The tasting room exemplifies this. “We wanted it to be calmer, so it’s also darker,” Brown explains, noting that visitors can get comfy but still have a view of the often-hectic activity going on outside. “It’s a place of refugee.” The design team took the framing from the fallen lean-tos and re-milled them into lap siding profiles for the walls; the flooring is Douglas Fir from a farmhouse that had fallen apart; and the window seating is constructed of Oregon white oak. “We really wanted to not only preserve but celebrate the materials of this place.”
What would a farmer do? Brown’s question – which became the north star for this project – is answered beautifully in a winery that respects its context as well as its past, present and future.
A Renowned Oregon Winery Cultivates a Striking Architectural Vision
Designed by Observation Studio, Sequitur Winery’s new location draws from agricultural vernacular while offering something utterly contemporary.