Award of Citation, AIA New York State Design Awards 2023

LOCATION: WOODSTOCK, NY

PROGRAM: Restaurant

STATUS: Completed 2020

SIZE: 3,600 SF

The new owner of an established popular restaurant in Woodstock, NY contacted us to help imagine its next iteration. After a structural analysis revealed that the wood building was far too deteriorated to be salvaged, the project pivoted to become a new building built on the exact footprint of the old one as mandated by the town. The client, a previous one with whom we renovated the nearby Phoenicia Diner, wanted a building that evoked the essence of mid-century roadside restaurants, with equal outdoor and indoor seating. The building is nearly square in plan; one third back-of-house, one third indoor dining, and one third outdoor dining. The exterior form is dominated by a single broad sweep of a roof that opens towards the view of the wooded hills surrounding the restaurant, across Tinker Street. Half the dining room is exterior, which benefited the restaurant almost immediately as it opened just before the Covid pandemic. For the interior, an updated palette of raw polished concrete floor, perforated powder-coated steel in green gold for wait-station enclosures, a zinc bar, and upholstered seating work in concert with the mountain environment in which it is situated and create a breezy open space connected to the surrounding natural landscape.

Threshold Builders was brought on during design and worked to make sure the project stayed on budget. The shape of the roof was determined almost immediately and wood frame construction was ultimately agreed upon with large douglas fir glue-lam columns at the front. The contractor was a PHIUS-certified passive house builder, and while passive house was not possible for this project, especially given the open facade, vapor control and insulation was informed by passive house practices. The facade was constructed as a rainscreen with a drainage plane behind tile and stucco exterior finishes.