2019 Kentucky AIA Award Winner
In a ceremony in Cincinnati, Ohio, last week, Doug Pierson, AIA, and Youn Choi, partners at pod architecture + design (pod a+d) in Chapel Hill, NC, received their second design award for Rabbit Hole Distillery, the metal, glass, and blackened wood structure they designed in downtown Louisville, KY, that the president of the Kentucky Distillers Association called “a modern monument to our historic industry.”
Earlier this year, pod a+d’s distillery design claimed the top “Grand Award” honor in Metal Construction News’ annual awards program.
The Kentucky chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) presented its awards during the AIA Ohio Valley Region’s “Celebrating Design Awards Luncheon” on September 19 at the Hilton Netherlands Plaza in Cincinnati.
The awards jury praised the new distillery as “an exuberant extension of industrial language with playful materiality. There is a legible and contemporary expression of both corporate identity and the process of making at various scales. In this way, the process of production becomes part of the architecture.”
According to Pierson and Choi, the design embraced the strategy “form follows process” as they allowed the building to take shape in direct response to the bourbon production process it houses.
The building’s “strong relationship to the street” impressed the jurors as well.
For more information on Rabbit Hole Distillery, visit www.rabbitholedistillery.com.
pod a+d is gaining a strong foothold in the craft distillery design niche
“Whiskey Business: The Top Four Craft Whiskeys You Need on Your Bar Shelf,”
Few Spirits
Widow Jane Distillery
Rabbit Hole…
What the couple shared that day was the realization that their small, multi-disciplinary design firm in Chapel Hill is now associated with all but one of the manufacturers of the “…top performing whiskey products from craft distilleries” across the nation, according to Provi.com, an e-commerce ordering platform for alcoholic beverages.
Meanwhile in Red Hook: More recently, pod a+d received the commission to design a modern facility within a ca. 1940 waterfront warehouse for the darling of the craft Bourbon industry, Widow Jane Distillery in Brooklyn, New York’s Red Hook village.
“Named GQ’s #1 Bourbon, Widow Jane is giving Kentucky bourbon a run for its money,” wrote Provi’s Ryan Philemon about the distillery’s prize beverage, which is made with mineral water created from the limestone used to build the Statue of Liberty and the White House.
Doug Pierson Tapped to Judge National Metal Construction Awards
The editors of Metal Construction News (MCN), the premier national news magazine for the metal construction industry, have tapped North Carolina architect Doug Pierson, AIA, to serve as one of only three judges for their 2019 Building and Roofing Awards.
Pierson and his partner Youn Choi are co-owners and principals of pod architecture + design. Their Chapel Hill-based firm received the highest honor – Grand Winner — in MCN’s 2018 awards program for their design of the 55,000-square-foot Rabbit Hole Distillery in downtown Louisville, Kentucky.
“Because that honor meant so much to us, I was incredibly honored when [Senior Editor] Mark Robins asked me to serve as a judge this year,” said Pierson, who is also a faculty member at NC State University’s College of Design.
MCN is a Modern Trade Communications, Inc., publication. For more information, go to metalconstructionnews.com.
On The Boards: pod architecture + design partners reveal plans for their modern house on a hillside
Eager to plant their roots more deeply into their new hometown, experiential graphics designer Youn Choi and award-winning architect Doug Pierson, AIA, partners in life and founding partners of pod architecture + design (pod a+d) in Chapel Hill , have designed a modern house for their family of four that they’re about to build on a site that poses a host of challenges.
DESIGN MILK: “Venice House is a California House with a Sloping Trapezoidal Roof” April 4, 2018 By Caroline Williamson
Among the tightly packed lots in Venice, California, the Venice House is a three-story, energy-efficient residence topped off with a unique, sloping trapezoidal roof. The beach house was designed by pod architecture + design (pod a+d), who also happen to be the owners, and it spans 1390-square-feet, which proved challenging as they had to build three bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths on a compact, 700-square-foot lot. They managed to accomplish that and then some within the white metal and wood clad abode. READ MORE…
Subversive Sustainability: Subtle Aspects That Form a Powerful Narrative
We designed the first LEED Platinum building in the downtown Louisville, Kentucky, area known as The Green Building. It opened in 2008. Little did we know that 10 years later, we would be commissioned to design the new Rabbit Hole Distilling campus right next door. We completed the main distilling building earlier this year. August 31, 2018
TREEHUGGER.com: “Green Building in Louisville Really Is Green, Now LEED Platinum” December 14, 2010 By Lloyd Alter
One post on TreeHugger says The Greenest Brick is the One That’s Already in the Wall; another that LEED stands for “Lunatic Environmentalists Enthusiastically Demolishing”. But now we are beginning to see the best of both worlds, with very green renovations and restorations, like the eponymously named Green Building in Louisville, Kentucky; it has just been certified LEED Platinum.
It’s the first LEED Platinum project in Louisville and the first LEED-certified adaptive reuse project in the entire state. But it is also part of a larger context… READ MORE
2018 Metal Construction News Building & Roofing Grand Awards
Form follows process. This is contemporary bourbon maker, founder and CEO of Rabbit Hole Distilling, Kaveh Zamanian’s vision for life and for his Rabbit Hole Distillery manufacturing building in downtown Louisville, Ky. This very modern, innovative 55,000-square-foot bourbon distillery, completed in July 2018, exemplifies this vision. The judges for the 2018 Metal Construction News Building and Roofing Awards were very impressed with both the distillery’s form and process, with two of them even saying that if they saw it from a distance while out driving, they would want to drive toward it to learn and see more about it.
“The Rabbit Hole Distillery project is a new contemporary building for a new bourbon manufacturing product in an otherwise traditional industry,” says Douglas V. Pierson, AIA, LEED APBD+C, co-founder/partner, architect and design principal at pod architecture + design, Carrboro, N.C.
“California cool meets manicured elegance at SIXTY Beverly Hill…
This modern Beverly Hills hotel blends upscale comfort with custom made furniture and unexpected design elements.” – Hospitality Online.com
“With dark woods, deep leathers, smooth marble and lots of mirrors, the Sixty Beverly Hills hotel is a sophisticated and tasteful throwback to mid-Seventies luxury and style.” – mrandmrssmith.com
The project involved renovating the exterior and interior of an eight-story hotel, including new roof-top bar and pool levels. It was completed in phases. Built on the bones of a 1960s Best Western motel, our goal is for the 92,000-square-foot Sixty Beverly Hills Hotel and Bond Street restaurant to capture the sophisticated cool of late ‘70s and ‘80s design as well as the casual elegance of California modernism.
pod a+d’s principals Youn Choi and Doug Pierson, AIA, were photographed with their kids, Oscar and Sora, for the cover of the July edition of The Downtowner, Chapel Hill Magazine‘s “Guide to Rediscovering Downtown.”
Day and Night: pod architecture + design to display work in NCSU exhibition
February 12, 2018
How structure is perceived from day to night is the theme of the presentation that pod architecture + design (pod a+d) in Chapel Hill is contributing to the upcoming N.C. State University School of Architecture Alumni Exhibition.