Students from Cal Poly’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) have teamed with The Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo County and Saucelito Canyon Vineyard to build an educational pavilion in the heart of the Edna Valley.
“This one-of-a-kind project will enable students to work with a real client and build a temporary structure to showcase the history of San Luis Obispo County’s wine regions,” said Gregory Starzyk, an associate professor in the Construction Management Department. “Cal Poly is excited to get this project off the ground in the fall with a design phase and in the spring have the students involved in building the temporary structure.”
The pavilion will be a temporary fixture at the Saucelito Canyon tasting room. The project envisions a unique structure that can be moved to different locations throughout the county. Depending on its size, the pavilion can be set up outside or indoors at vineyards, exhibit halls, parks, festivals and other public spaces.
Bill and Nancy Greenough, owners of the tasting room on Biddle Ranch Road in Edna Valley, have agreed to host the temporary structure starting next summer.
For the design proposal phase, Cal Poly received a grant through LPA, a fully integrated firm of architects, engineers, interior designers and landscape architects with offices throughout the state. The firm, which has a nationwide reputation for innovation and sustainable design, also plans to work with the students.
In addition, LPA will help to fund the first phase of the project, which includes turning design proposals into 3-D models. Bryan Seamer, the company’s director of structural engineering, will lead the design proposal phase.
The theme for the pavilion is “Connection,” which relates to the mission of the Wine History Project, whose main focus is to research the history of winemaking and viticulture throughout San Luis Obispo County. The local wine industry began in the 1770s; today, the county has more than 250 wineries and wine grapes are the top agricultural commodity.
The structure will be designed to blend in with the county’s diverse grape-growing areas while providing a welcoming space to display the Wine History Project’s exhibits and artifacts.
“This truly is a collaborative, grassroots effort to build something very special,” said Libbie Agran, who founded and oversees the Wine History Project. “There is nothing like this in San Luis Obispo County, and we are very excited to partner with the Greenough family and their team at Saucelito Canyon, as well as the Cal Poly faculty and students to bring the pavilion to the public.”
During the initial design phase, 36 CAED students will begin work gathering input from the Wine History Project and winery staff at Saucelito Canyon. Organizers hope to have the final project design completed in early December.
The project is headed up by three Cal Poly faculty members: Starzyk; Margaret Kirk of the Architecture Department; and Dennis Bashaw of the Architectural Engineering Department. For more information about the pavilion structure, as well as updates throughout the design process, visit https://ispavilion.weebly.com/.
With more than 1,900 students, Cal Poly’s acclaimed College of Architecture and Environmental Design offers a unique blend of eight degree programs in five closely related departments: Architectural Engineering, Architecture, City and Regional Planning, Construction Management and Landscape Architecture. The college’s architecture program is the No. 1 ranked public architecture program in the nation, according to the latest DesignIntelligence survey. For more than 70 years, CAED programs and the college’s 16,000 alumni have been a positive influence on the forces that shape the planning, design and construction worlds. Visit www.caed.calpoly.edu.
LPA is a fully integrated firm of architects, engineers, interior designers and landscape architects, all working as one team. The firm designs innovative environments that work better, do more with less, and improve people’s lives. Founded in 1965, with offices throughout California and Texas, LPA has a nationwide reputation for innovation and sustainable design, including one of the largest portfolios of LEED Platinum and Gold-certified projects in the country.
Saucelito Canyon Vineyard is the producer of one of California’s most distinguished Zinfandels, a wine made from historic dry-farmed old vines that remain a world apart in both place and character. Nestled into the rugged terrain of the upper Arroyo Grande Valley on the Central Coast, the vineyard features three acres of head-pruned Zinfandel vines first planted in 1880 and painstakingly revived by owner Bill Greenough nearly a century later. Today, the vineyard staff remain dedicated to capturing the singular flavors native to Saucelito Canyon and to advancing the vineyard’s heritage through sustainable viticulture and progressive winemaking.
