Frank Gehry-Designed Hall Winery
Officially Breaks Ground in Napa Valley

Landmark Project Combines Provocative Architecture with World-Class Winemaking To Celebrate Art, Wine and Napa Valley Environment

ST. HELENA, Calif., July 27 /PRNewswire/ -- After four years of extensive planning and design, world-renowned architect Frank O. Gehry and associate Edwin Chan joined vintners Craig and Kathryn Hall to break ground Friday on the new Hall Winery in Napa Valley. The centerpiece of the new winery will be a 10,073 square-foot Frank Gehry-designed building composed of glass, stone, plaster and wood and crowned by distinctive undulating trellising that will echo the mountains and vineyards of Napa Valley in the background.

Gehry, known for his intrepid exploration of form, is lauded for projects such as the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and other celebrated works. Scheduled to open in 2010, the St. Helena project will house one of the most advanced wineries in California, restore the historic buildings currently on the site and incorporate sustainable, energy-efficient design to achieve LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The groundbreaking event, in addition to formally launching the construction, unveiled Gehry's many working models and allowed the architects and vintners the opportunity to share, first-hand, their inspiration and vision for the project. Margrit Mondavi, with husband Robert Mondavi close by, served as the moderator for a presentation by Gehry, Chan and the Halls.

"During our first site visit to the Hall Winery, it became immediately apparent that the master plan for the new winery must complement the natural setting of the Napa Valley and take advantage of and emphasize the spectacular views of the neighboring Mayacamas mountain range, while integrating all new buildings with the site's significant historic resources," said Gehry. "With the artful combination of the historic and the new, the natural and the human-made, it is our intention that the new Hall Winery will be an experience that is unique to and harmonious with the beauty of the Napa Valley."

"From the beginning, we were thrilled with the ideas the Gehry team presented," stated Kathryn Hall. "With his design, Frank has succeeded beautifully in creating a building that inspires the senses and at the same time is sensitive to the natural beauty of Napa Valley. We are also delighted with the way Frank and Edwin Chan have incorporated the historical nature of the property into the design."

The Halls -- Kathryn is the former ambassador to Austria under presidents Clinton and Bush and Craig is an entrepreneur, investor and author -- have been vineyard owners in Napa Valley since 1995. The couple purchased their St. Helena property, the former Napa Valley Cooperative Winery, in 2003, which sits on 33 acres on Highway 29 just south of the town of St. Helena. The new winery will be built in three phases on the site, allowing the Halls to continue making wine using the existing facilities and to operate their current tasting room until the new winery is complete.

"Working with Frank Gehry and his team has been a joy and a dream," noted Craig Hall. "It has been an inspiration to us to have a front-row seat for the creation of a work of art. We have a lot of construction work ahead of us, but we are delighted with the design."

Beginning Saturday and continuing through the construction process, Hall Winery will offer special daily tours of the Gehry project. Visitors who pre-arrange tours at the winery will have the opportunity to view an exhibition of the designs, concepts and processes undertaken by the Halls and Gehry Partners during the past four years. This exhibition will include photographs, drawings and nearly 40 models, which were built through the design process. In addition, the tour will include a tasting of current-release Hall wines and a tasting of wines from barrels. The fee for the tour, exhibition and tastings is $25 per person. A special complimentary tour of the architectural exhibit alone will be offered once a week on Sundays. Tours, tastings and visits to the exhibition can be arranged by calling Hall Winery at 707-967-2620.

When the new Hall Winery opens it will be one of the most advanced wineries in California, with state-of-the-art facilities designed for ultra-premium wine production. Napa Valley architect Jon Lail worked closely with the Gehry team to design the functional winery structures, which include a unique fermentation building for high-end winemaking and gentle handling through gravity-flow delivery of grapes.

Hall wines are distributed in major markets throughout the U.S. The Halls have a second winemaking facility in Napa Valley, Hall Rutherford, which was completed in 2005. Additional information is available at http://www.hallwines.com.