January 7, 2022

Woodinville Whiskey expands near Quincy

Photos by Kristian Alveo [enlarge]

The site design was influenced by the traditional ricking houses of the American South.

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The hot days and cold nights of eastern Washington create the perfect conditions for barrel aging whiskey.

To meet increasing demand for its products, Woodinville Whiskey Co. needed a larger facility to process and age its whiskey. Graham Baba Architects was brought on to design the new processing and barrel-aging site, which sits on 10 acres at 8368 Road S NW in Quincy, amidst fields of grain in Grant County used to produce the company's product.

The facility is being developed and expanded in phases. The completed first phase features a roughly 25,000 square-foot processing and bottling building, which also houses new corporate offices, and a 25,000 square-foot barrel rickhouse for aging the whiskey. A second barrel rickhouse of the same square footage is under construction. Three additional 25,000 square-foot barrel rickhouses and a tasting room are slated for future phases. The tasting room will feature a bar and windows that look into the processing area. There will also be covered and open patio areas overlooking fields of rye, corn and wheat. The fourth warehouse will start construction this spring, and the fifth and final one will likely be added in the next year or two.

The facility buildings range from 40 to 70 feet wide by 400 feet long. According to the architect, the design is inspired by “the simple agricultural and industrial warehouses found in the region, as well as from traditional ricking houses found throughout the American South.” Functional aspects such as vehicle circulation, loading and unloading dictated the site's layout and the buildings' scale. All buildings are clad in dark metal siding and Kebony wood in reflection of Woodinville Whiskey's branding and to “evoke the warmth and character of the whiskey.” To save on both time and cost, each building is constructed using prefabricated structures.

In the completed bottling and processing building, the transition between office and process areas is demarcated with a long vertical window that folds from wall to ceiling, transforming into a skylight. The space also induces elements that were previously demolished at the Woodinville distillery at 14509 Redmond-Woodinville Road N.E., creating a visible connection between the two spaces. These include steel and old growth Douglas fir stairs and steel railings. Before the stair was moved to its new location, patrons of the Woodinville location signed a steel stringer.

This is the second project that Graham Baba Architects has done for Woodinville Whiskey, the first being the company's flagship tasting facility in Woodinville.

The project team for the new facility is: Graham Baba Architects, architecture and interior design; JSL Engineering, civil and structural engineering; Western Pacific Engineering, geotechnical engineer; AHBL, landscape architect; Reax Engineering, fire protection consultant; and Rimmer & Roeter Construction, general contractor.