The Foundry

INVISION Architecture

Recognitions: Spring 2020 Iowa Architect

Project Description

The Foundry is a unique multi-tenant development set inside a historic railroad maintenance building. Originally built in 1899 for the Rock Island Railroad as a box car repair facility the building has housed many uses over its long life including a plumbing warehouse and a foundry, from whence the development takes its name. Designed as the cities first mixed-use industrial development, the Foundry houses a beer hall (the Hall), distillery (Foundry Distilling Co), and non-profit food truck kitchen (the Kitchen). While each is a separate business they are intended to work together symbiotically towards a singular experience. The distillery produces libations in partnerships with local and regional micro-brewers and provides an industrial background and ambiance through a large viewing window into the Hall, The Hall serves as the social and public heart of the development with its large open bench seating and outdoor patio, while the Kitchen serves rotating food truck fare in the Hall while also providing a home base for the trucks and a job training center for homeless youth. Visually all three tenants are united through common detailing and a raw industrial aesthetic. Historic elements like the masonry walls, cast iron columns, and steel trusses were touched as lightly as possible while new elements of glass, raw steel, and reclaimed wood from boxcar floors were inserted. As a nod to its original use as a boxcar repair building a shipping container was repurposed into the beer cooler behind the bar. Architecturally new insertions both built and mechanical are conceived as individual objects with the glass wall between the distillery and beer hall keeping the open look and feel of the original structure intact.