The Lanza family has been farming nearly 500 acres of premium grapes and making wine in the Suisun Valley for three generations. Their desire is to expand their winery production from about 15,000 cases to about 50,000 cases in a new facility.

In addition to expanding their wine making capacity, the Lanza’s wish to build a landmark facility that will serve to successfully market their wines to the community through the rental of a banquet hall for weddings and other special events. However, they asked that the new tasting room facilities be the primary focal point of the winery and not be disturbed by events taking place in the banquet hall.

The site plan was developed to provide a formal entrance to the winery with tasting room and special events traffic splitting to their respective sides. The radial access road accommodates this while also serving to provide the necessary parking for special events without creating the appearance of a large “parking lot” allowing the cars to be “absorbed” by the vineyard. The radial site plan also provides a desirable circulation for large delivery trucks and grape gondolas during crush.

The banquet hall and tasting rooms have been designed to incorporate tall open spaces with exposed steel trusses and exposed mechanical to so that the guests will experience the space as “being in a winery”. This is further emphasized in the banquet hall via large windows that expose the guests to views of stacked barrels in the barrel cellar.

The walls of the winery will be constructed of 12 inch concrete block and insulated with 4 inches of rigid urethane insulation on the exterior side and finished with exterior cement plaster. Quoins and trim will be pre-cast concrete. The exterior plaster walls and “stone” trim will be stained with iron sulfate. The roof will be a blended red/brown Mission style clay tile.