Barrel House 1-14 (Clickspring Design - 2016)

Due to its prominent location on the Jack Daniel’s campus – it is one of the first buildings to greet those making the pilgrimage to the distillery – Barrel House 1-14 was a natural candidate for a unique activation as Jack Daniel’s worked to scale their capacity and enhance their visitor experience.

Historically, the massive, three-story heavy timber warehouse has been used for a single, critical purpose; it is where thousands of barrels of Jack Daniel’s signature whiskeys spend seven years maturing in their casks, post-distillation. Within the unconditioned, tin-clad building, the barrels are periodically rotated as their American oak staves expand and contract due to natural temperature and humidity fluctuations. The interior of the barrels are charred, which allow the clear whiskey to adopt an amber color and caramelized flavor over time as it is absorbed into and out of the wooden vessels. In this way, the building works in tandem with its regional climate, ensuring no two barrels are exactly alike. Both seasonal weather conditions and a barrel’s location within the building contribute to a barrel’s individuality.

Visitors stepping inside the active barrel house are immediately greeted with a profound olfactory experience. As a barrel ages, between seven and ten percent of its contents are lost to evaporation. Multiplied by thousands of barrels, this “angel’s share” blankets the space in a delightfully potent, heady aroma. Dimly lit and densely populated with ricks stacked three barrels high per floor, the sprawling warehouse feels surprisingly intimate. Deep timber beams steadily march through the interior just above head-height, crisscrossed by a forest of sturdy square columns at work supporting a mammoth payload. Perpendicular axes organize the building’s main circulation, with its longest corridor open to the triple height structure above. Here, with occasional natural light filtering through the cathedral-like volume, it is impossible to ignore the spirituality of the place.

As the Jack Daniel’s brand has experienced incredible growth over the past decade, the distillery grounds in Lynchburg have witnessed a surge of visitors eager to explore its history at the source. So, as part of a multi-phase master plan, Barrel House 114 was slated to play an important role in providing new, flexible event space and an exclusive whiskey sampling venue. Preserving its innate spirit and honest sense of place while activating these new programs became the guiding principle driving the design solution.

Moving along this central axis and into the heart of the building, visitors pass through another set of doors and emerge into an open, triple height space. Here, the formal configuration of the barrel house remains unchanged. However, at specific locations all three levels of ricks have been carefully carved away, offering clearings within the thicket of stacked barrels. Here, two simple, pin mounted glass volumes supported by slender steel frames are placed over fields of dark limestone, their soaring walls interrupted only by the building’s interwoven, heavy timber superstructure above. Flanking the main aisle, these spaces allow for a private and sophisticated product sampling experience.

Service rooms, including restrooms, a service closet, attic space, and a preparation pantry, are strategically concealed by rows of barrels. Beyond these rooms, two additional, unenclosed clearings create flexible event spaces. A series of rolling carts with large, integrated displays function as adjustable room partitions, presentation tools, and additional seating.

By embracing the ethos of the original barrel house while preserving as much of its program as possible, the new spaces created allow for nimble and brand-sensitive activations that will support the distillery’s growth for generations to come.