Tearing down walls-Emotionally and physically
When we initially stepped into our future facility, we were pretty pessimistic about its future to be 100% honest.
The walls were wet, falling apart, and peppered with graffiti and filth from years of neglect. The smell of mold and mildew were ever-present. The facility had long been abandoned, and the consequences of total neglect were made abundantly clear. At the time, the idea of even being able to convert this structure into something meaningful seemed pretty grim. We began slowly gutting the facility with hopes that somewhere in the process of cleaning up, we would be stricken with inspiration for how to move forward…that took a while.
The buildings long-standing legacy in Fairbanks was that of a laundromat. Built in the early 50’s, historical documents can place the plot of land in the category of some of the oldest plots in the Fairbanks downtownship records. The irony of a facility built to clean, being so utterly filthy was not lost on us whatsoever. Our first step was removing the intact laundering equipment that spanned 85% of the building. Large industrial dryers, conventional washing machines, steam generating equipment, air handlers and assorted tertiary equipment had all been left in their original state-some of which were still full of water. It sometimes felt like a post-apocalyptic movie, where everybody up and ran, leaving things exactly as they were at that very moment.
It took us a full summer and into the following winter to accomplish the task of emptying the building to the point that we could effectively see what we were working with. It wasn’t looking good.
We recruited a local architect that had some experience building breweries in the past, as well as deep ties to downtown. Together, we slowly began to unearth the harsh reality of the existing facility. We would need to tear down nearly half the building to rebuild portions of the building that were unsafe.
With a basic layout in mind, we started demolition on the structurally unsafe portions of the building, while trying to maintain as much of the original structure as possible. Our goal was never to just tear the whole thing down and start over. If we wanted a brand-new facility then we would’ve just found an empty lot somewhere in Fairbanks and built a steel structure and slapped our equipment in and called it a day. Our goal, however, was always to take something historically significant to Fairbanks and breathe new life into it.
Summer of 2021 was a very big year for 314 Wendell Avenue. While we awaited final drawings from our architect, we deeply dug our teeth into demolition and cleanup of the building. This is when all the BIG improvements started to take shape. Don’t get me wrong, it is still very much so an abandoned building, but as of writing this, it is nearly 100% prepped for construction to begin early summer 2022.
Our list of large projects this summer included:
Removing the entirety of the existing roof
Tearing down structurally unsound walls
Excavating sections of concrete for locations of new water/sewer lines
Gutting the building of defunct electrical, fire suppression, and water
As summer 2021 wraps up, we are excited for the soon approaching winter. During this phase of the project we will contract out trades for construction of our new facility, and work with brewery manufacturers on building a custom brewhouse for our humble little brewery. While this may have not been the easiest way to build a new brewery, it surely has been more satisfying. We hope that the roots we are planting in Fairbanks will continue to grow, as our beautiful home grows with it.
A sketch of what we hope to create for downtown