Cal Poly held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Center for Wine and Viticulture at the San Luis Obispo campus on Friday, May 4. The new wine education complex will include a 15,000 square foot full working winery, and a 12,000 square foot “Grange Hall”, housing a large meeting hall, enology and viticulture labs, a full sensory lab, and faculty/student collaborative offices.
The ceremony, hosted by the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences (CAFES), was held at the project site on Mt. Bishop Road, adjacent to the Crop Science complex. Speakers included Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong, CAFES Dean Andrew Thulin, Wine and Viticulture Department Head Benoit Lecat, and Fundraising Committee Chair Jerry Lohr (J.Lohr Wines). Also present were many of the major project donors, who took turns digging their gold shovels into the new construction site.
One of the coolest aspects of the event was having the outline of the new Grange Hall mapped out on the ground, enabling the guests to have an initial “walk-through” of the building. The guest seating for the ceremony was set in the future location of the lobby, providing views of the vineyards and Mt. Bishop, a preview of the vistas that will be experienced from the new building.
TLCD Architecture is proud to be the Architect of Record for this exciting project, working with JW Design, the project builder. The project team includes almost exclusively Cal Poly graduates, including Steve Nuich and Brian Wright (TLCD), Steve vonRaesfeld (VRA), Matt Walsh (Walsh Civil Engineering), Rob Main (TEP Engineering), Rich Burris (Structural Design Group), Dan Venya (Sierra Designs Landscape Architects), and Jerry Williams (JW Design).
