New Belgium Brewery
Craft brewing and construction can blend. In the case of New Belgium Brewing Company’s (NBB) new 131,000-sf brewery, 5,000-sf tasting facility, and 1,800-sf Process Water Treatment Plant, built on an 18-acre site adjacent to the French Broad River in the Asheville River Arts District — it’s an exceptional pairing. Add a giant batch of community, sustainability and some international flavor and you have a Leuchturm (meaning lighthouse/beacon in German) project that showcases NBB’s vision that it isn’t about what you say; it’s about what you do.
New Belgium Brewing Company
Industrial
Perkins+Will
Asheville, NC
137,800 sf
ENR National - Best of the Best Manufacturing Project – 2016
Community first.
Through AP-hosted community open houses prior to construction, information regarding the largest project to come to Asheville in over 50 years garnered local subcontractor and vendor interest, leading to over 50% local participation by number of trades and contract value.
Sustainability always.
NBB, the nation’s third largest craft brewer, has a deeply rooted commitment to sustainability and this project showcases that commitment. Prior to construction, AP managed the deconstruction of former tobacco barns, a mechanic shop and an auction house to source reusable materials. The project team created a thorough inventory of all reusable materials on the site and developed a plan for reusing as much as possible, which included the steel trusses, metal siding and old wood. After the dust settled, over 75% of the brewery and 96% of the liquid center (LC) were built from deconstructed and recycled material from the existing site structures.
Project without borders.
At the peak of construction, seven different languages were represented, complicating safety and harmonization. In-depth construction coordination between NBB’s international brewery process vendors, AP and the design team allowed for the installation of large brewing vessels and tanks during building shell construction, as well as coordination of process piping in a single-spine pipe rack through the plant.
