Following their acquisition of Boatwerks Waterfront Restaurant, a long-time staple located on Lake Macatawa, Redwater Restaurant Group engaged Ghafari to design the space’s renovation and expansion. The property features a restaurant, event center, banquet hall, conference room, and a bride’s room.
With Boatwerk’s rich history on Lake Macatawa, our material selections pay tribute to the boat building factories that once lined the lake’s shores. Our design includes a building addition to accommodate an extended bar, and interior renovations to the entry, bar, and dining rooms. Exterior work introduced a new sun canopy and renovated the outdoor patio areas, including a new tensile patio roof structure.
We adopted a phased approach so that the restaurant could remain open during construction. The first phase involved exterior construction. The second phase completed the remainder of the exterior construction.
In the restaurant, a concrete block wall is painted to evoke an abstract representation of beachy earth tones found in the area. Painted white with cedar slats, the exterior evokes a modern “boat house” feel, further paying tribute to the lake’s history. The bar is highlighted with blue and gray tiles with pops of red, serving as a nod to Holland’s signature red lighthouse. The tensile canopy structure serves as a beacon to those out on the lake.
