Josh Berliner

Wheeler Farms Winery in St. Helena is nestled in the heart of California’s wine country and is a reflection of the region’s agricultural history. The facility includes a hospitality building with private dining, tasting, chef’s counter, and office space, winemaking building housing production and fermentation spaces, a lab space for in-house and visiting winemakers, and an expansive cellar for barrel storage.

The architecture of the winery is true to the Napa region - clean and modern barn-like buildings reflect the roots in agriculture with a welcoming hospitality feel. The exterior is stained cedar siding with a standing-seam metal roof.

Sustainability and environmental performance were key in the design including systems that allow for savings in water and energy use. Heritage trees on the property, including several fruit trees, were maintained as a critical piece of the design significantly reducing energy and water demands.

This project was designed by Taylor Lombardo Architects. With the Taylor Lombardo team, I brought the project from concept through Design Development, working in partnership with owners Bart and Daphne Araujo.

More on the facility itself from the Taylor Lombardo website: “The fermentation building provides night cooling through an operable monitor and louvers, while the cellar utilizes ground temperature to maintain the climate necessary for barrel storage. The Hospitality House features an elegant interior flooded with natural light. An oversized skylight, timber trusses, an open kitchen and stone fireplace invite visitors to enjoy an intimate tasting experience.”

Year: 2014

Firm: Taylor Lombardo Architects//San Francisco//CA

Team: Tom Taylor, Maurice Lombardo, Chris Schweckendiek

Client: Bart & Daphne Araujo

Dfm collaborated with Gensler, serving as product design consultant, for the International Collection. The versatility of the product allows it to be specified in open office workstations in single, benching and enclosed configurations, as an elegant private office and as a freestanding reception desk. The design language hints at a Mondrian influence with push and pull moments occurring throughout details and material transitions. Featuring integrated electronic height-adjustable functionality, raised privacy screens and personal storage, the lightly scaled components are a modern take on the classic desk. Material combinations are endless with availability in all standard Dfm finishes in wood, metal, glass, acrylic, terrazzo and fabric.

As project lead and design manager for the International Collection I was pleased to help Dfm bring this design to market

Year: 2019-2020

Firm: Gensler//San Francisco//CA

Team: Collin Burry, Terry Walker, Rebekah Reid

Client: DFM

Awards: Winner of Interior Design Magazine HiP Award (Workplace: Furniture Systems category)

Nomadic Grove was created at Rebar as a part of the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum's exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought. This design of this exhibition drew on themes of the Jewish celebration of the trees of Tu B’Shevat. The brightly colored gem-shaped wooden planters designed for the installation included informal seating and used olive and oak trees. Located outside of the museum, the Nomadic Grove activated the plaza in front of the CJM and allowed for the planters to be reconfigured.

I was involved in this project as a fabricator. Along with the rest of the fabrication team at Rebar I built, painted, and installed Nomadic Grove. 

Year: 2012

Firm: Rebar Art & Design Studio//San Francisco//CA

Client: The Contemporary Jewish Museum//San Francisco

AÑO NUEVO ISLAND RESTORATION PROJECT
Año Nuevo Island State Marine Reserve/Ca

Home to the rhinoceros auklet, a seabird and species of concern that burrows into the ground to nest, Año Nuevo is also home to sea lions, elephant seals, and other pinniped species. The pinnipeds were trampling the native plant species and auklet nests, causing unsuccessful reproduction, erosion and a lack of plant life. Ceramic nests designed by Rebar and created at CCA in San Francisco were placed in the ground for the auklets. A habitat ridge built out of wooden dowels and invasive eucalyptus trees harvested from the main land created a barrier between the pinnipeds and the auklets, allowing for auklets to reproduce and for a solid root system to establish itself. The habitat ridge was completed in November of 2011 and plant life is beginning to take hold on the previously barren landscape. My involvement in the project was focused on the organization and construction of the habitat ridge and replanting of the island.
 

Year: Fall 2011

Firm: Rebar Art & Design Studio//San Francisco//CA

Collaborators: Oikonos, CCA 

"Zephyros is a wind-activated sculpture in the form of a helix composed of reflective panels braided around tall masts. Three unique, tapered spirals–clustered in the landscape at the Palega Recreation Center in San Francisco’s Portola neighborhood– gently spin at varying speeds, revealing wind patterns that may be unnoticed at ground level. The reflective stainless steel panels capture light and mirror the activity in the park and in the surrounding neighborhood.

Zephyros is both an environmental art piece that captures and reveals wind patterns, and a social sculpture that literally reflects the park and the neighborhood. Looking at the piece from below, the visitor sees her own reflection, but also the neighborhood and sky in an ascending collage high above. The movement in the sky will be made visible on the ground as the sun casts dynamic, undulating shadows across the landscape." - Rebar

My involvement in the project was testing several models and forms of panels to determine the most effective and interesting interaction with both the wind and visitors to the park. 

Year: 2012

Firm: Rebar Art & Design Studio//San Francisco//CA

Client: San Francisco Arts Commission