Saint Arnold: A Cathedral Built for Beer

Mar 6, 2019 • Ennis Davis, AICP

The power and elegance of adaptive reuse in urban settings comes in a variety of forms. Today, we take a look a rapidly growing craft brewery that has won numerous national and international awards, including Mid-Size Brewery of The Year 2017: Houston's Saint Arnold Brewing Company

Completed in 2010, the $6 million redevelopment of the three-story, 104,000-square-foot brick warehouse established the Saint Arnold brand at a prominent central location that was close to downtown and readily accessible from Interstates 10, 45 and U.S. Highway 59. In addition, the new brewery was designed to feature refurbished, updated and automated brewhouse equipment from a closed brewery in a German monastery. With a state-of-the-art energy-saving boiling and mashing system, the new facility increased the brewery’s annual capacity from 22,500 barrels to 40,000 barrels while allowing for expansion up to 120,000 barrels per year. Located at 2000 Lyons Avenue, the building also serves as a space for one-of-a-kind gathering places for corporate groups, alumni associations, wedding parties, clubs, casual and formal events. With its two main spaces, a German-inspired Beer Hall and an English-style Investors Pub event spaces accommodate groups from 25 people to over 350.

While weekday and Saturday afternoon tours at Saint Arnold Brewing have become a Houston tradition, a recent addition at the industrial complex is generating great reviews these days. Blending in with the surrounding industrial landscape, a recently completed bier garden now stands adjacent to the imposing former HISD brick warehouse were Saint Arnold now brews, kegs, cans and bottles its products. Envisioning a beer garden where patrons would be protected from the sun and an interior space paying homage to the brewery’s namesake, Natalye Appel + Associates Architects assisted in the design of a “dissolving metal building” that also gives was to a covered outdoor section and open sky. Inside, the industrial look gives way to a restaurant, tap room and gift shop designed in the form of an ancient cathedral featuring a rendering of Saint Arnold himself.

St. Arnold Brewing Company’s facilities represent the power of combing manufacturing capacity needs, adaptive reuse, and history in a manner that creates local jobs while promoting local authenticity and sense-of-place, attracting tourism and commerce in an area of town that was once largely forgotten. Today, the Saint Arnold Brewing Company brews several year round, seasonal and single batch brews, served in bars, restaurants, grocery stores, liquor stores and warehouse stores throughout Texas and Louisiana. If you’re interested in great beer, food, authentic adaptive reuse, urban placemaking and happen to be in Houston, Saint Arnold is definitely worth a quick stop.