Last August, District Distilling, Washington D.C.’s first combination distillery-kitchen-bar, opened with much fanfare inside a 19th Century row house along historic 14th Street. A 2014 law change now permits local distilleries to pour spirits they make onsite.
Since that opening, the location’s designer, GrizForm Design Architects, has been tweaking the lighting for the ground floor distillery that unexpectedly has become a tourist attraction and also accommodates parties.
The distillery features two copper pot stills and a 38-plate twin copper column system. “The stills are quite beautiful, with copper and stainless steel accents,” says Griz Dwight, who owns the design firm. So throughout District Distilling, he tried to sustain that visual by combining, wherever possible, two types of materials, such as copper and wood, leather and steel, light and mirrors.
District Distilling Co., the four-year-old owner of the restaurant, was instrumental in getting the distillery law changed, says Dwight. It was also hands-on during the project, whose Building Team included Potomac Construction (GM), Allen & Shariff (MEP), Structura (SE), and Hospitality Kitchen Design (food service).
Carl, the Germany-based company that supplied the distilling equipment, didn’t have a representative on site, so the team had to figure out how to assemble the stills, the larger of which are 2½ stories tall and prominently visible throughout the building. The stills—which distill gin, vodka, rum, and whiskey—have portals and interior lights so patrons can look in and watch the process. (Reserved tours at $10 per person.)
District Distilling converted three row houses that had been restaurants into a two-floor distillery and restaurant that includes ground-floor retail. Image: Eater/R. Lopez
Dwight says the 8,000-sf space is actually 3½ row houses that were once separate restaurants but had been vacant for a while. The team removed walls to open the room, which includes the second-floor, 139-seat restaurant and bar. District Distilling also has a ground floor retail area that sells bottles of the spirits it produces and other merchandise.
The distillery was scheduled to release its first spirit, called Corridor Vodka, this fall, and what it makes will eventually be offered for the cocktails served at the bar and restaurant.
The demand for distilleries that sell their products to the public is undeniable. More than half of the domestic business generated by the 1,280-plus active craft spirits producers in the U.S. is driven by direct sales at a distillery or tasting room, according to the American Craft Spirits Association’s 2016 report.
Dwight says his firm is working on another distillery-restaurant-bar, Farmers & Distillers in Mt. Vernon, Va., that’s scheduled to open December 13, but will lean toward the restaurant and be more of a finishing distiller than District Distilling. The website Eater reports that another combination, Cotton & Reed, is set to open next year near the District’s Union Market.
The 8,000-sf District Distilling is part of a growing trend of distilleries selling directly to the public. Image: District Distrilling Co./Amber Frederiksen
Related Stories
| Nov 16, 2010
Architecture Billings Index: inquiries for new projects remain extremely high
The new projects inquiry index was 61.7, down slightly from a nearly three-year high mark of 62.3 in September, according to the Architecture Billings Index (ABI). However, the ABI dropped nearly two points in October; the October ABI score was 48.7, down from a reading of 50.4 the previous month. The ABI reflects the approximate nine to 12 month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending.
| Nov 16, 2010
Brazil Olympics spurring green construction
Brazil's green building industry will expand in the coming years, spurred by construction of low-impact venues being built for the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee requires arenas built for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro meet international standards for low-carbon emissions and energy efficiency. This has boosted local interest in developing real estate with lower environmental impact than existing buildings. The timing couldn’t be better: the Brazilian government is just beginning its long-term infrastructure expansion program.
| Nov 16, 2010
Green building market grows 50% in two years; Green Outlook 2011 report
The U.S. green building market is up 50% from 2008 to 2010—from $42 billion to $55 billion-$71 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction's Green Outlook 2011: Green Trends Driving Growth report. Today, a third of all new nonresidential construction is green; in five years, nonresidential green building activity is expected to triple, representing $120 billion to $145 billion in new construction.
| Nov 16, 2010
Calculating office building performance? Yep, there’s an app for that
123 Zero build is a free tool for calculating the performance of a market-ready carbon-neutral office building design. The app estimates the discounted payback for constructing a zero emissions office building in any U.S. location, including the investment needed for photovoltaics to offset annual carbon emissions, payback calculations, estimated first costs for a highly energy efficient building, photovoltaic costs, discount rates, and user-specified fuel escalation rates.
| Nov 16, 2010
CityCenter’s new Harmon Hotel targeted for demolition
MGM Resorts officials want to demolish the unopened 27-story Harmon Hotel—one of the main components of its brand new $8.5 billion CityCenter development in Las Vegas. In 2008, inspectors found structural work on the Harmon didn’t match building plans submitted to the county, with construction issues focused on improperly placed steel reinforcing bar. In January 2009, MGM scrapped the building’s 200 condo units on the upper floors and stopped the tower at 27 stories, focusing on the Harmon having just 400 hotel rooms. With the Lord Norman Foster-designed building mired in litigation, construction has since been halted on the interior, and the blue-glass tower is essentially a 27-story empty shell.
| Nov 16, 2010
Where can your firm beat the recession? Try any of these 10 places
Wondering where condos and rental apartments will be needed? Where companies are looking to rent office space? Where people will need hotel rooms, retail stores, and restaurants? Newsweek compiled a list of the 10 American cities best situated for economic recovery. The cities fall into three basic groups: Texas, the New Silicon Valleys, and the Heartland Honeys. Welcome to the recovery.
| Nov 16, 2010
Landscape architecture challenges Andrés Duany’s Congress for New Urbanism
Andrés Duany, founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, adopted the ideas, vision, and values of the early 20th Century landscape architects/planners John Nolen and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., to launch a movement that led to more than 300 new towns, regional plans, and community revitalization project commissions for his firm. However, now that there’s a societal buyer’s remorse about New Urbanism, Duany is coming up against a movement that sees landscape architecture—not architecture—as the design medium more capable of organizing the city and enhancing the urban experience.
| Nov 16, 2010
Just for fun: Words that architects use
If you regularly use such words as juxtaposition, folly, truncated, and articulation, you may be an architect. Architects tend to use words rarely uttered during normal conversations. In fact, 62% of all the words that come out of an architects mouth could be replaced by a simpler and more widely known word, according to this “report.” Review this list of designer words, and once you manage to work them into daily conversation, you’re on your way to becoming a bonafide architect.
| Nov 16, 2010
NFRC approves technical procedures for attachment product ratings
The NFRC Board of Directors has approved technical procedures for the development of U-factor, solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC), and visible transmittance (VT) ratings for co-planar interior and exterior attachment products. The new procedures, approved by unanimous voice vote last week at NFRC’s Fall Membership Meeting in San Francisco, will add co-planar attachments such as blinds and shades to the group’s existing portfolio of windows, doors, skylights, curtain walls, and window film.
