PIGS ALLOWED
ART BARN
For the rural art (and animal) collectors
SOLANO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA / 2013
This project unexpectedly combines three interests: animals, art, and agriculture. My clients, a couple—two veterinarians dedicated to animals—came to me to help them design a modern space for art on their large acreage. The result, Art Barn, carves out a quarter of an old steel horse barn, raising the area three feet above the ground and transforming it into an inviting, soaring art gallery that moonlights as an art studio, houses storage, and serves as an event space for public and private gatherings.
The new front window wall brings in the ever-shifting landscape, reaching out towards the land in a punched-out form reminiscent of an oversized bay window. The interior gallery space remains connected to the rest of the barn and its ongoing function, housing animals, feed, and farm equipment.
PROJECT SIZE
10,000 sq. ft. steel barn on 14 acres
MATERIALS
Original steel horse barn
Agricultural acreage
Large meadow or field
Horizon views
Animals and art
The tall, wide window bay frames the meeting of sky and land, creating a living art piece: a tableau of daily and seasonal changes.
The interior architecture exposes and accentuates the angled steel barn structure, and the size of the barn creates large walls for hanging art.
The exterior wall juts out to capture a commanding 180-degree view of the Valley’s seemingly endless horizon line.
Steel barns are a ubiquitous, integral element in the Central Valley, linked to the region’s agriculture and farming history. These highly engineered structures provide affordable oversized spaces—for raising animals, storing hay, or creative pursuits—sometimes all in the same barn. This intervention re-purposes the familiar steel barn form into a more complex set of functions—reflecting the needs and lives of new Valley inhabitants.
Photos #1, 8, 11 by Julia Ogrydziak
Photos #2-4, 7, 9 by Sharon Risedorph
Photos #5-6, 10 by Todd Quam, Digital Sky
FEATURED CASE STUDY
FRAMING THE VALLEY:
MARIA OGRYDZIAK, HOUSES
Like Art Barn? You can read more about it as one of eight case study houses featured in my book Framing the Valley, where trailblazing people—with both modest and luxurious budgets—worked with me to craft remarkable lives.
