ONLINE EXCLUSIVE! Walk Through the Woods

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE! Walk Through the Woods

April 21, 2009

By Stacy Shoemaker Rauen
Photography by Darko Zagar Photography

After working a renovation of Sonoma Restaurant + Bar in Washington, DC, the owners called on Griz Dwight for a second project—Redwood Restaurant + Bar in suburb Bethesda, Maryland. The brief: a space that is simple and timeless, sophisticated yet unpretentious, breezy and open. "This description immediately reminded us of a recent camping trip to the Californian mountains and a quote [by Ansel Adams] that our guide recited while tending the campfire," says Dwight, founder of local firm Grizform Design Architects. "We designed the restaurant around this quote, and the images that it sparked in our imagination."

The interpretation starts at the wood slatted facade done with FSC-certified redwood ("What else," says Dwight) that is from olive oil tanks originally fabricated by the George Windeler Company of San Francisco in the 1930s. "We designed the restaurant to represent a walk in the valley," he explains, adding that bifold doors open the entire dining room facade to inside is like dining alfresco. "You enter through a break in the paneled facade, just as you would enter the woods through a break in the trees."

Wood continues inside—on floors, walls, ceilings (as slats like branches), built-in benches and ledges, the hostess stand, and the wall of the bar. "Just as we started conceptualizing the project, we received a solicitation from a company that makes bark shingles for rural homes, and we knew immediately that we had to have it in the project," he says. "Bringing an unprocessed natural material into the restaurant softens the space and makes it feel more comfortable and unique."

Elsewhere, the tables are custom made end-grain wood blocks trimmed in hot rolled steel and covered in resin; the bartop and the face of the tasting bar are done in white marble; oversized round light fixtures have a diameter as big as a redwood; real stacked wood wraps the private dining room; and the seats and backs of the dining chairs and barstools are seatbelt waste from car manufacturers.

The challenge? The space is housed in an empty concrete shoebox with zero character. "It's always easier to work in a space that has some existing personality or history," he says, adding that bottle lining the consoles in the middle of the space are something functional he made attractive. "Sometimes a unique shape or a historic brick wall can help drive the idea and the design. Redwood was a blank canvas and making the first stroke was important."

www.grizform.com; www.redwoodbethesda.com

Redwood Restaurant + Bar
Bethesda, Maryland
Owner: February Group LLC
Architecture/Interior Design Firm: GrizForm Design Architects
Project Team: Griz Dwight and Michelle Bove
Contractor: Herman/Stewart Construction

Bar
Lighting: StoneGate Designs
Seating: Design Public, Webber Team, Fusion, Prince Seating
Tables: Desiron, Room and Board

Tasting Bar
Wall Fabric: Osbourne & Little
Seating: Fusion, Valley Forge

Dining
Tables: Creative Dimension Group
Chairs: Weber Team
Banquettes: KC Booths and Valley Forge
Lighting: Lampa
Deer Head: Generate

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