Pirie Associates Completes Adaptive Reuse for Dos Luces Brewery in Denver

DENVER - Sept. 11, 2018 - PRLog -- Dos Luces Brewery is celebrating its recent opening after New Haven based architects Pirie Associates completed their culturally-relevant renovation of the 3,000 square-foot former antique store.

Founded by brew specialist Judd Belstock and Sam Alcaine, a professor of fermentations at Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the brewery serves two gluten-free beers with ritualistic origins: a corn-based Chicha from South and Central America and a corn and maguey-based Pulque — one of the oldest fermented beverages known to North America.

"Judd came to us with two specific requests," says Laura Pirie, principal architect at Pirie Associates. "Imagine if European colonization had not interrupted the cultural development of the Americas — what would the places we make and the food we eat be like?" Secondly, Belstock told the design team, "I do not want a bar where people sit shoulder to shoulder and do not interact."

In response to Belstock's request for a sincere communal experience, Pirie Associates transformed the long, dark and narrow space into a three-world multiverse based on a common view of both ancient Mexican and Peruvian cultures: the upper world, the middle world, and the lower world.

The upper world, or the heavens, is translated into the front of the brewery, or zócalo, where the community gathers. The middle world, where we do our day-to-day work, is in the heart of the brewery where customers interact with and learn about the brewing process. The lower world is in the rear, where a brewers table and collection of artifacts create an intimate creative space with overhead skylights.

The middle world area includes a custom 9 x 24 foot mural by the renowned Teotihuacan based artist Emily Grieves to represent the merging of three worlds. Called Axis Mundi: Homenaje al Maguey y Maiz, the piece includes four separate panels painted in Mexico and printed on high-quality fabric in Colorado.

As part of their focus on health and wellbeing, Pirie Associates incorporated several measures to ensure the project's sustainability. In addition to a variety of plants that absorb CO2 emissions released during fermentation, the renovation includes a highly efficient rooftop HVAC system, low energy LED lighting and low-flow fixtures that reduce water demand. Low VOC finishes such as tile, wood, steel, and clay plaster further enhance indoor air quality.

"The space is designed to be a community space," says Belstock. "I truly believe when customers are in here, it belongs to them."

Pirie Associates is a multi-disciplinary practice that creates environments to help clients and communities take what they do to the next level. They engage a highly collaborative process that begins with the clients' mission and purpose and ends with exacting attention to detail and execution with the result of making places that are transformative. A certified Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) based in CT and practicing nationwide, the foundation of the firm's solutions are focused on health and well-being. This includes striving to assure the resources consumed in making and operating environments are balanced and restored by the resources they give back: physically, intellectually, and in service.

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If you would like more information, please call Becky Nichols at 203-821-2087, or email becky@pirieassociates.com. For more images and a complete press kit, please visit: https://www.pirieassociates.com/dos-luces-contemporary-de...