London-based architecture firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) has unveiled its design of a 227-acre distillery master plan in Somerset, Kentucky that aims to become a vibrant destination on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail® with commercial and cultural facilities that honor the heroes of 9/11.
Titled Horse Soldier Farms, the project translates the historic story of 12 Horse Soldiers by placing 12 fermentation barrels around a central column made of metal retrieved from the Statue of Liberty, along with a recessed water feature and a still-house that pays homage to the Twin Towers in New York City. The distillery was created for the American bourbon brand Horse Soldier Bourbon, which was founded by retired US Special Forces servicemen in honor of those who fought on horseback in Afghanistan.
The site will be used as an all-inclusive village with venues to host events and festivals, along with a variety of shops, community rooms, a chapel, equestrian center, and health and wellness facilities. Horse Soldier Farms will also include a luxury lodge, a gallery, and a water garden that includes a replica of the America’s Response Monument which honors the heroes of 9/11.
We’ve begun to thread the Horse Soldier story into the wider landscape narrative and the emerging distillery design. This essentially will contain important symbolic features fundamental to what will become the Horse Soldier Farms experience. We are encouraged and excited by Horse Soldier’s ambition to create an environmentally conscious bourbon facility that will propel our team, Horse Soldier, and the bourbon industry into a new era of climate-conscious spirit production. -- Graham Stirk, Senior Partner and Lead Architect of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.
The project will combine new distillation technologies with traditional maturation methods to create its premium bourbon. It will also use environmentally sustainable distillation practices, clean energy, and water, enhancing the biodiversity on site.
In 2014, RSH+P designed a new whiskey distillery and visitor centre in Speyside, Scotland. Designed for The Macallan, a core brand of the major Scottish spirits producer Edrington. The proposed building is buried into the surrounding landscape of The Macallan Estate, revealing itself as a series of grass covered mounds overlooking the river Spey.
RSHP is the lead design architect on the project working closely with EOP architects in Kentucky. Along with BRC Imagination Arts (experiential design), Kentucky firms including VITOK (engineering), Brown + Kubican (structural engineering), CRM Companies (facilities management), D.W. Wilburn Inc. (construction) and Carman (landscape and civil engineering), as well as national consulting firm CMTA (engineering)
