The Hopperation Brewery
Spring 2016
The Hopperation Brewery was designed from constraints given in a term project which was required to be a two story commercial building located in the greater Los Angeles area. This project in particular had a large focus on structural design given the story limitations of the structure, although architectural design and overall design concept remained important to the overall project package.
While picking a concept for this project, our group decided that a brewery located in the Los Angeles Arts District area would be a great idea due to the area's growing popularity and rustic building types consisting largely of masonry and wood design. Due to the level of structural engineering required for the term project, a brewery was also a great fit in order to learn how to create flexible and rigid diaphragms in order to support large brewing tank structures and take into consideration seismic force acting on these tank structures. Furthermore, choosing a brewery could allow our group to deal with an industrial type of structure to develop architecture in a largely open plan, which was not consistent with any previous project that had been done so far in the program.
Design Influence
Much of the design influence for the Hopperation Brewery came from visits to various structures in the Los Angeles Arts District area. The architecture of this area is rustic and industrial, with typologies consistent with brick and wood structures. Many of these structures were structurally designed with masonry walls and wood glue laminated beams with large wood column supports to create a simple, yet effective way of creating large open floor spans with high ceiling heights. The use of brick, concrete masonry units, and glue laminated beams serves as a reminder of past methods of structural engineering using simple material and traditional methods of skilled labor while simultaneously creating an old, homey and rustic feel that can be easily incorporated into the architecture of the structure.
Due to the prevalence of classic warehouse designs in the Los Angeles Arts District area, our team decided to design a similar warehouse structure while including modern elements of structural design. An open floor plan was utilized in the creation of this structure in order to create a free flowing space around the centrally located brewing tank area which has a two story clear height to make it visible from both the first and second floors. To continue the theme of industrial and warehouse type spaces, we utilized brick, wood and metal pipe throughout the exterior and interior to convey the theme of a traditional brewery.
In order to bring the rustic look into the modern era we decided to add elements of art and gaming to bring the true experience of an industrial space into the 21st century. In the program, we have an art gallery with rotating artwork to be cohesive with the location in the Arts District while making the building feel inviting due to the direct connection it has toe the local community. In another modern aspect, we also have a game room where patrons can spend their time being active and socializing while also being able to enjoy an outdoor beer garden to take advantage of Los Angeles' exquisite weather.
Structural Design
The main focus of this project, despite the developments in both architectural design and renderings within this project were structural calculations and design. In order to create a 2 story structure with brewing tanks designed to withstand seismic forces in accordance to the coordinates of the site, a fair amount of structural engineering and analysis was needed to complete a functional and modern design.
Due to the seismic demands of Los Angeles, this structure was created using complex roof and 2nd floor diaphragm systems, the roof was designed as a flexible diaphragm and the 2nd floor was designed to be rigid to resist the bulk of seismic force. In order to reduce weight while maintaining a good combination of structural rigidity and flexibility, the roof diaphragm utilized plywood shear panels to resist lateral (seismic) forces while the more rigid 2nd floor utilized Concrete Masonry Unit (CMU) piers to resist lateral force.
Architectural Plans
Architecturally, there were no limitations to design or concept besides fully addressing the 40,000 sq. ft. usable area requirement and the two story maximum height within the site chosen by our group. We decided to create a multipurpose structure containing a brewery, a restaurant, and a bar deemed as "The Hopperation" with other associated spaces. The building is characterized by a rustic and classic brewery design which is also consistent with the design of many other warehouse type structures in the Los Angeles Arts District area. In order to make a cohesive bond with the Arts District, we decided to also incorporate art into the architecture of the building, placing murals on the exterior of our building in the outdoor beer garden and placing works of art on the wall as well as including a rotating art gallery proximate to the second floor restaurant.
The architecture of this project can be reflected in the architectural plans below, which include interior design in order to showcase how the spaces were laid out in order to create both patron and worker serviceability.
Renders and Portfolio
Similar to other projects done in the Civil Engineering Building Science degree, the renders for the Hopperation Brewery project were done using the REVIT software along with photoshop. The use of both of these programs was deemed useful in order to add in artwork and realistic backgrounds used to enhance rendered images and add to realistic views of the project. The portfolio, which can be downloaded below, provides a much more detailed project summary than is displayed on this site, including calculations, elevations, sections and more.
