The Granary
Our History
Background
What is a Granary?
A granary is a storage facility for grains. Granaries have been built from ancient times, with the oldest granaries dating back to 9500BC! Originally, they were carved into the ground or rock, or made of clay. Modern granaries were invented in the late 19th century with the invention of the silo. Today, the world’s tallest silos are almost 400 feet tall!
The Isaacson Granary
The Isaacson Granary provided feed to the many cattle ranchers and dairies around the area. Here, they made special mixes of cattle and calf feed, such as calf mix, steer mix, and dairy mix. Below are two of the many unique recipes that were commonly mixed here. You can see the grain scale where the ingredients were measured by the rest rooms.
Who We Are
Weston Miles Architects
Founded by Charles Weston and Lesley Miles, Weston Miles Architects has contributed their considerable expertise to numerous civic projects, residential projects, educational facilities, and historic renovations in the Bay Area. Committed to sustainability and to the community, WMA designed the first LEED certified school in California and has been an active member of the Morgan Hill community for 22 years, WMA acted as designer and developer in the renovation of the Granary.
Visit the Granary website at www.wmarchitects.com to learn more about sustainable building
Renovation
Designing for Sustainability
Sandwiched between the railroad tracks and Downtown, the old Isaacson Granary was the most prominent reminder of the area’s once preeminent agri-business. As populations grew and Santa Clara Valley evolved into Silicon Valley, the industrial businesses based around the Granary and the railroad tracks slid into non-use and decay, and the Granary became a derelict monument to a bygone era.
The Granary redevelopment preserves this piece of the City’s agricultural past, while providing a “gateway” project at the northeast entry to the downtown. Adjacent to the train depot the building is now home to Weston Miles Architects, a community space, a restaurant, and additional offices. The redevelopment focused on sustainable design, a core tenet of WMA.
Renovating the granary involved more than simple redesign. Great care was taken to preserve the building's integrity and character while developing it into an integrated structure that met a number of goals; historic building reuse, a sustainable building and site, and adherence to a very limited budget of $2 million dollars.
These goals were achieved by designing an adaptive reuse of the existing building, retaining the Granary’s form, structure and foundation. The project transformed a drafty, dark industrial building into an efficient, bright structure using Savings by Design and LEED criteria in addition to traditional design practices. The project received Designer and Owner incentives from the Savings by Design program and is LEED Gold Certified.
Today
The Granary is a LEED Gold Certified adaptive reuse project designed by Weston Miles Architects. This award winning building showcased Morgan Hill’s agricultural tradition while demonstrating the principles of sustainable design.
Logo: U.S. Green Building Council – USBGC, LEED Gold
Marker is on Depot Street south of 1st Street, on the right when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
