After completing a required one-year post-occupancy review, the Silver Oaks Alexander Valley winery designed by Piechota Architecture, with engineering and sustainable design consultations from Thornton Tomasetti, has achieved Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification. 

Located in Healdsburg, California, the 100,000-square-foot complex was completed in 2018 and is now the world's first LBC-certified winery. The building exists, additionally, as one of just 25 buildings globally to achieve this level of certification from the International Living Future Institute, Thornton Tomasetti explains on the firm's website.

The winery project consists of two interlocking structures situated on a 113-acre site. One structure contains a sizable tasting room with event spaces and is connected to an adjacent production facility by a covered patio. The second structure includes administrative uses, with the whole arrangement topped by a series of solar panel-topped roofs that feed the production facility's energy-intensive machinery. 

According to the engineers, the project required testing and vetting over 1,000 building materials to assure adherence to LBC's strict toxicity standards, which are dictated by the Red List Imperative, a database cataloging "the worst in class materials prevalent in the building industry," according to the International Living Future Institute.

The engineers write, "Material needs were very specific due to quality-control requirements in wine production and because the project area, which includes the vineyard, is so large. Thornton Tomasetti carried out a back check review of the energy model, compared against Silver Oak’s existing operating facility in Oakville, and assisted with reviewing the ongoing monitoring of energy use."

Thanks to these efforts, the complex has achieved all seven "petals" of the LBC, which include focuses on Site / Place, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity and Beauty. Additionally, the project previously achieved LEEDPlatinum certification according to the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED 2009 Building Design and Construction (BD+C) for New Construction standards.