Merit Award
Jack Daniels Visitor Experience
Location
Lynchburg, TN
Client
Brown Forman
Design Firm
HOK Studio E, St. Louis, MO
Design Team
Charles P. Reay (Principal in Charge), W. Everett Medling, Sally Nikolajevich, Derek Prior, Sarah O'Brien
Fabricators
1220 Exhibits, Sain Construction Co.
Photographer
Balthazar Korab
The Jack Daniels Distillery is internationally known and described through its advertising, which depicts a bucolic hollow and an immutable, rural, picturesque community. The design challenge was to fit a new visitor center into the sylvan hollow and to create a facility that felt like it "has always been there." The center contains pre-tour and post-tour facilities, a theater, a historic bar, a retail area, and special facilities for conferences. The design focused on bringing a more ordered, polished, and intimate view of the process of making whiskey and on further illustrating the long history and deep traditions surrounding this special place.
Jury Comment
"A seamless example of an exhibit coordinating with architecture and company story. The exhibits tell the story of this company in a sophisticated yet subtle manner, truly setting a tone for the legacy of this company. This is a great infusion of product in an elegant non-commercial fashion."
"A well-execuited infusion of corporate identity into an interior that doesn't resort to theme park devices. Consistent and clear with instructive but not overly didactic use of imagery."