Wicked Weed Brewing – The Funkatorium + Cultura

Asheville’s craft beer scene has been growing at an exciting pace, and we have enjoyed working with the folks at Wicked Weed Brewing on multiple venues, most notably the Funkatorium. After we had designed minor renovations at Wicked Weed’s primary location on Biltmore Avenue, the owners tasked us with the renovation of the Funkatorium, their sour beer facility. Phase 1 entailed renovating an existing industrial building on the “South Slope” of Coxe Avenue and equipping it to be a sour beer production and barrel aging facility with a tasting room, retail shop, small kitchen, and office space.

As the South Slope began to develop around the Funkatorium and word of their offerings spread, the need arose for more gathering space. To achieve this, we worked with Osgood Landscape Architecture to design an outdoor patio and bocce court, protected from the elements by a steel frame and Douglas fir roof canopy. This doubled the size of the taproom’s seating capacity with a diverse array of seating options. At this time, Wicked Weed was still using only a small portion of the building as public space, with the remaining 9,000 square-feet designated as storage and production.

The Funkatorium’s growing popularity precipitated the latest renovation, which broke ground in 2018, transforming the southern half of the building into a restaurant and art gallery with a commercial kitchen connected to the existing tasting room. As part of this latest phase, we also repurposed a large portion of the production and storage area into an event space with catering kitchen for corporate events and private parties, and transformed the parking lot beside the building into a biergarten, complete with a mobile bar. The Funkatorium’s neighborhood continues to grow and change, as marked by the recent opening of The Chemist Distillery and Antidote Cocktail Lounge, also one of our projects. We are thrilled to be a part of the development and can’t wait to see what’s next.

Landscape Architect: Osgood Landscape Architecture
Structural Engineer: Medlock Engineering
MEP Engineer: Sud Associates
Civil Engineer: Civil Design Concepts
Photographer: J. Weiland (Photos 1-4)