Shigeru Ban's design of the 420-acre campus for the owners of Kentucky Owl Burboun near Louisville, Kentucky, is anchored by three timber pyramids that will house the distillery. Shigeru Ban Architects will be designing much more than just the three pyramids. A press release points out that the $150 million project will include: rickhouses for aging, a bottling center, a state-of-the-art distillery and offices for the American Whiskey Division of Stoli Group, which bought Kentucky Owl last year. 

Mass timber is the material of choice for structuring the various buildings, most influenced by vernacular long-span structures; the pyramids, obviously, harken to more remote influences. Sited at Cedar Creek Quarry, the project will have a considerable landscape component, including turning the existing pits into lakes with limestone-filtered water...