Design-build delivery was essential to achieve LEED Platinum performance within a lean construction budget.
The 34,000-square-foot facility, funded entirely by private donations, includes the Teaching and Research Winery and the August A. Busch III Brewing and Food Science Laboratory. It is designed to LEED Platinum building and construction standards — the highest certification granted by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The facility, located near UC Davis’ south entry from Interstate 80, complements the other three buildings of the Robert Mondavi Institute. Construction was completed in 2010. It houses the world’s first LEED Platinum winery, first LEED Platinum brewery and first LEED Platinum food processing pilot plant and milk-processing lab. It is the first LEED Platinum building on the UC Davis campus and only the third built by UC. (The other two are UC Davis’ Tahoe Center for the Environmental Sciences in Incline Village, Nev., and UC Santa Barbara’s Bren Hall.)
Built to accommodate the many teaching and research activities involved with brewing, winemaking and food processing, the building is one of the most complex facilities on campus. Shared by the Department of Viticulture and Enology and the Department of Food Science and Technology, it comprises two attached wings. The north wing houses the Teaching and Research Winery, and the south wing houses the August A. Busch III Brewing and Food Science Laboratory.
“It not only meets the highest environmental design and construction standards, it goes even further to demonstrate how environmentally responsible technologies can be incorporated into the daily operations of food and beverage processing facilities,” said enology professor Roger Boulton, the Stephen Sinclair Scott endowed chair in enology, who specializes in the chemical and biochemical engineering aspects of winemaking.
Site context
The UC Davis Wine Brewery and Food Facility is located on the southern end of the UC Davis campus. Because the project is located on a campus, occupants enjoy many amenities within walking distance, as well as access to public transportation, bike storage and charging stations for electric vehicles. With a half acre of restored natural grassland nearby and native and adaptive landscaping, there is a high ratio of open space to development footprint.
