VINE CLIFF WINERY 1871
A visual identity is established for the hospitality building of a major winery renovation.
Project Brief
Formerly a family run winery in disrepair, Signum was enlisted to design a major renovation of Vine Cliff Winery in Oakville, CA, consisting of the main hospitality building, wine production facilities, and new visitor gardens in an existing asphalt plaza. Over 15,000 sq.ft. of existing caves would also be restored for barrel storage, tank fermentation, and high-end tasting experiences.
I was tasked to connect the pure form of the hospitality cube chosen by the partner to this unique hillside site. Through a materiality study, we established an identity for the cube that blended the strict county standards of color conformance. Taking direct inspiration from the hillside topography, the formal elements of our modernist structure bend to the organic elements surrounding it.
section through cube, building permit. guests enter from the rear courtyard and pass through the central main entry, leading to a feature staircase directed towards the gardens. a 6’ platform breaking the stair is positioned at the center of the cube, allowing guests to travel directly under the featured hanging artwork and enjoy the view of the property from the south window. guests then travel from the cube through the gardens, ultimately ending at the cave portal for wine tastings.
Area Plan
The cube is rested on top of the existing building footprint into plan, then rotated on axis to the center point of the cave entrance and natural culvert to direct guests to the main hosting spaces. Since all tasting was requested to be in the caves, the hospitality cube was designed as a pass-through gallery space, housing a custom built installation by artist Rana Begum.
01 parking | 02 entrance | 03 hospitality cube | 04 gardens | 05 cave entry portal | 06 crush pad | 07 barrel storage
aerial image of hillside, cropped in scale of the cube unfolded.
gis topographic lines imposed on landscape, color filtered to match site textures.
corten steel mockup in collaboration with manufacturer to divide image into panels for fabrication.
the manipulated topography is etched onto the cube, with concealed doors and a punch out for a full height window directed towards the hillsite featured on the front.