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Wine With Real Structure

Lawrence W. Cheek -- Interior Design, 5/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firm: Mithun

Site: Woodinville, Washington

The mood is serene, the materials unpretentious, the geometry sober. "No gratuitous lines" is how Mithun principal Kim Munizza puts it. But the public spaces at the Novelty Hill–Januik winery in Woodinville, Washington, still come off as engaging and even romantic, places to hang out and savor the pleasures of design along with the grape.

Architecture, interiors, and landscaping were all designed by Mithun, a firm with a flair for civilizing an industrial aesthetic. This winery's exterior, in fact, borrows the horizontal forms and concrete slabs of an industrial park in the same suburban neighborhood—but kicked up several grades of refinement. The interiors may be predominantly concrete and steel, but they're accented with ipé. They're also lavish with daylight. A wine critic nostalgic for dark châteaus would look in vain.

The decor borrows from the wine world in numerous forms. Pendant fixtures over the tasting bar recall inverted champagne flutes. Even the restrooms feature an eye-level steel band of tightly packed circles, abstracting wine bottles in a cellar. In the actual tasting cellar here, round barrels serve as a foil for the boxy severity of the room, and color-changing LEDs cached behind the barrels disperse any gloom and formality. Stacked barrels create a dramatic display behind a glass wall along the central corridor, too.

Like a fine wine, this building offers complexities that don't reveal themselves at once.

Clockwise from top: At Novelty Hill–Januik winery, ipé planks frame a stainless-steel demonstration kitchen with stools by Jesus Gasca. The glassed-in barrel room faces the tasting room, with its hangings by Native American artist Shaun Peterson. Concrete slabs echo those of buildings in a nearby industrial park.

Clockwise from top left: Kim Hoelting designed and constructed the tasting cellar's custom tabletop of Western red cedar. The winery produces cabernet sauvignon. Crushed safety glass fills the gas fire pit on the side terrace; Arne Quinze designed the ottomans.

FROM FRONT STUA: STOOLS (KITCHEN). FOSCARINI: PENDANT FIXTURES. ALLERMUIR: TABLES, CHAIRS (TASTING ROOM). KERF DESIGN: CUSTOM BENCHES (EXTERIOR). CRATE AND BARREL: CHAIRS (CELLAR). LIVE EDGE WOODWORKS: CUSTOM TABLETOP. ERCO LIGHTING: CEILING FIXTURES. EASTSIDE GLASS CO.: CUSTOM WINDOW (BARREL ROOM). QUINZE & MILAN THROUGH DESIGN WITHIN REACH: OTTOMANS (EXTERIOR). THROUGHOUT BETTERBRICKS DAYLIGHTING LAB: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. IL GROSS STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. EMERALD AIRE: MECHANICAL ENGINEER. PK ELECTRIC: ELECTRICAL ENGINEER. DAVID EVANS AND ASSOCIATES: CIVIL ENGINEER. EXPERT DRYWALL: PLASTER, DRYWALL CONTRACTOR. WALSH CONSTRUCTION COMPANY: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.