Wild Turkey Bourbon Visitor Center
WILD TURKEY BOURBON VISITOR CENTER
De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop
ARCHITECTS
De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop
CIVIL ENGINEER
Evans/griffin Inc.
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Stanley D. Lindsey And Associates Ltd
MEP ENGINEER
Kerr Greulich Engineers Inc.
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Lichtefeld Inc.
MANUFACTURERS
Kolbe
PROJECT MANAGER
Lindsey Stoughton
PROJECT TEAM
David Mayo
ME&P ENGINEER
Kerr Greulich Engineers Inc.
SPECIFICATIONS
Conspectus Inc.
ARCHITECT IN CHARGE
Roberto De Leon
PROJECT ARCHITECT
M. Ross Primmer
AREA
9140 Ft²
YEAR
2013
LOCATION
Lawrenceburg, United States
CATEGORY
Visitor Center
Text description provided by architect.
Located on a bluff overlooking the Kentucky River, the Visitor Center is the newest component of recent additions & expansions to the Wild Turkey Bourbon Distillery Complex, one of seven original member distilleries of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.
The 9,140 s.f. facility houses interactive exhibits, a gift shop, event venues, a tasting room and administrative offices.
In concert with a major re-branding program that caters to both longtime devoted fans and a growing legion of new bourbon enthusiasts, the project employs a design direction that is both familiar and new – bridging tradition & innovation through an immersive environment of contrasts & dualities.
Utilizing a simple barn silhouette (an interpretation of Kentucky tobacco barns common to the area), the building presents a clear & recognizable marker at the scale of the landscape.
Clad in a chevron pattern of stained wood plank siding, the simplicity of the barn form is contrasted by the intricacy of the building skin, creating a shifting sense of scale and tactility that is deliberately both simple and complex.
Alternating zones of opaque and light-filtering lattice blur the boundaries between inside/out and solid/void.
By night, the dark structure transforms into a delicate, glowing lantern of filigree perched above the river.
Internally, the building is organized along a ramped, split-level public promenade that culminates in an elevated tasting room overlooking the Kentucky River (the bourbon’s base water source).
In a nod to the nearby bridges spanning the river, a wooden trestle element provides a physical spine from which the various programmatic elements are reached.
