The Fountaingrove Golf Clubhouse

Company:
BAR Architects + Interiors
77 Geary St #200
San Francisco, California 94108
(415) 293-5700
https://www.bararch.com
Contact:
Jeff Goodwin
Business Phone: (415) 293-5700

Project Location: Santa Rosa, CA
Completion Date: 12/01/2021
Owner: The Fountaingrove Club

Additional Team:
Civil: Adobe Associates, Inc., Santa Rosa, CA
Structural: ZFA Structural Engineers, Santa Rosa, CA
MEP: TEP Engineering, Santa Rosa, CA; Summit Engineering, Inc., Santa Rosa, CA
Landscape: Lutsko Associates, San Francisco, CA
Contractor: BHM Construction, Inc., Napa, CA

Project Description

Fountaingrove’s new golf clubhouse embraces the paradox of building a strong and vibrant community after the devastation wrought by the Tubbs Fire. Integrating architecture and interiors, and creating gathering spaces with strong indoor-outdoor connections foster interaction and inclusiveness. Intended to feel as a second home and encourage use throughout, areas are right-sized for daily, smaller group activities and seamlessly expand for larger special events. Cleverly sited to take full advantage of the dramatic views to the west, both levels of this resilient and efficiently designed 2-story building offer at-grade terraces and plenty of indoor-outdoor space for all to enjoy.

To start, the team established a hierarchy of priorities and identified building components most critical to bringing all of the various user groups together in new and meaningful ways. Other club facilities were toured and evaluated and the wish list grew. At the same time, temporary facilities were also set up and insurance dollars appropriately utilized to do so. However, that made the project budget for the new clubhouse even tighter and required creative, cost effective solutions to address program needs but reduce costs.

Our team worked closely to create a program and design that would enhance community, save money, and provide a small footprint – but still be extremely desirable and valued by the club. Efficiently built on two floors, key to accomplishing this was achieved by creating flexible spaces, and maximizing use of adjacent outdoor spaces and highlighting views to the west. Through the close integration of architecture and interiors, flexibility was also enhanced by creating and incorporating movable and flexible furnishings.

As an overview, primary dining opportunities are located on the 2nd floor where a variety of dining spaces were created including 1) more active, informal dining with smaller tables, closer to the bar, and with a connection to the display kitchen and garde manger; 2) another more formal dining area with a fireplace, various seating and a bit more reserved design; and 3) private dining with a featured wine wall and private service. These are all supported by a large commercial kitchen.

A grand staircase creates a strong connection between the two levels with restrooms located near the stairs on both levels. Outdoor terraces with furniture for dining and relaxing easily adds 1/3 of the building or more to enable more flexible, lower cost yet highly enjoyed gathering, dining and larger event spaces. Large eyebrow overhangs with recessed radiant heaters were designed into the exterior facades in multiple locations around the building to provide shade and weather protection.

The lower floor also offers social opportunities via the board room with an outside terrace near the entry and outside courtyard. This floor primarily supports the golf aspects of the club and includes the men’s and women’s locker and wet rooms, pro shop, cart storage & barn, and loading area. The scale of spaces, finish materials and furnishings were all designed to convey a residential and casually elegant sense of place.

A further objective was for all member gathering spaces to take full advantage of the dramatic views to the west. To better integrate the upper dining level with the surrounding landscape, the building was positioned between two exiting small knolls and set into the land mass so that both upper and lower levels had at-grade outdoor terraces.

Design Challenge

Although the Board of the Fountaingrove Clubhouse had started to envision a future club with a broader membership, the Tubbs fire wreaked such tremendous damage throughout the community that the need to re-imagine a future and how members could come together in new and more inclusive ways was even more significant amidst the chaos and destruction. At the same time the situation imposed very real constraints with project budget due to insurance funding and timeframe for delivering a new facility. To do so, design strategies to inspire connectivity, foster engagement and help rebuild and support a broader community, as well as right sizing the building for various uses, were employed. Part and parcel was also creating an efficient and resilient building that was cost effective to build and maintain. Integrating architecture and interiors and maximizing the creation of adjacent indoor-outdoor spaces optimized connection, flexibility and budget. All member and dining spaces have built-in flexibility for varying uses throughout the day while strong indoor-outdoor connections also supported the creation of smaller interior spaces able to be appropriately sized for daily activities, accommodating smaller gatherings, yet able to seamlessly expand for larger community groups and events. Exterior shade and weather protection was critical, thus large eyebrow overhangs with recessed radiant heaters were designed into the exterior facades in multiple locations. All these features also supported a smaller, efficiently designed two-story building footprint, optimizing the exterior skin to interior volume ratio and facilitating budget constraints with this right-sized building.

Physical Context

The clubhouse site is set on a hillside and rocky terrain, and previously surrounded by mature landscaping. Working together with the Board, the property’s primary circulation routes were reconfigured to foster and increase interaction between different user groups despite the dispersed nature of club amenities. Creating flexible and numerous gathering spaces with strong outdoor connections and which expand seamlessly to bring the community together were important. To better integrate the upper dining level with the surrounding landscape, the building was positioned between two exiting small knolls and set into the land mass so that both upper and lower levels had at-grade outdoor terraces, making the building feel both anchored to and a natural extension of the site. A further objective was for all member gathering spaces to take full advantage of the dramatic views to the west. After detailed analysis of the solar exposure, large eyebrows were incorporated into all the west facing facades and a linear skylight was inserted on the opposing side of the dining spaces to balance the natural light levels and minimize glare. The two-story building footprint optimizes the exterior skin to interior volume ratio. But this approach also meant exterior shade and weather protection was critical. Thus large eyebrow overhangs with recessed radiant heaters were designed into the exterior facades in multiple locations around the building.