Located on the first certified organic vegetable farm in Southwest Michigan, Granor Greenhouse is an inventively programmed and conditioned space for food education, production, and citizenry under one roof.
With agrarian economy and utility in mind, the prefabricated 7,336-sf glass structure immerses farm staff, chefs, Farmcamp youth, visitors, and farm-to-table diners into a working vegetable farm while delightfully engaging their five senses.
The building “fits in” with the existing farm and local typologies, all referencing the N/S Jeffersonian Grid. Galvanized steel, mill-finished aluminum, and access doors/portals painted “Farmall red” visually tie it to the other buildings on the farm.
Harvesting the sun with its broadside facing south, the building utilizes the Dutch Venlo greenhouse kit-of-parts system, organizing its diverse program into three zones with associated glazing strategies.
The central zone, designed for maximum program flexibility, uses clear glass to provide unencumbered views out to the fields and sky above. The ever-present kitchen supports daily food and bakery production made from ingredients grown on the farm. It also anchors Granor’s highly successful dinner-at-the-farm program that incorporates movable furniture over the ground concrete floor, allowing the space to quickly transform from a production facility to a place for community and dining events.
Translucent glass offers the most diffuse, ideal growing environment in the eastern and western zones, which include an herb garden and space for germination and plant growth.
Bookending the main social space, two Douglas Fir clad volumes provide strategic separation between the zones, housing the mudroom/wash sink, pantry, and chef’s office. The wood softens the cool finishes while screening the acoustic absorption that wraps the volumes’ five faces.
“The Granor Farm Greenhouse is a spectacular example of utilitarian beauty, taking a pre-engineered greenhouse and transforming it into a beautiful laboratory of food growing and preparation – a place that we all want to visit and experience from the inside.”
Juror, AIA Chicago Design Excellence Awards
Additional Images
Lighting Design: Lux Populi
Landscape Architect: McKay Landscape Architects
Structural Engineer: C.E. Anderson & Associates
Mechanical Design: Mansfield Engineering
MEP Permit Drawings: Building Engineering Systems
Photography: Steve Hall, Tom Harris, and Ross Feighery Photography