“It’s a unique site,” Miller says. “The boardwalk weaves
through the trees. We were very cautious about trying to
maintain as many of the trees as possible. There really isn’t
anything else like this in Wilmington, where you can sit
here and see the river and yet still have the trees and the tree
canopy.”
The river dictated most of the design decisions about the
building’s simple L shape. The proximity to the water prompted
Miller and Dean Webb, LS3P’s project designer for the build-ing,
to reach into the state’s past.
“We were going for more of a rustic feel, something that
harkens back to coastal Carolina vernacular from years back,”
Webb says. “Not necessarily a fish house; we wanted some-thing
a little more modern than that.”
They looked at old shacks, houses and businesses around
Wilmington that reflected the Coastal Carolina vernacular
for inspiration. It’s incorporated in the restaurant design in
eight-foot wraparound porches and decks with Adirondack-style
rockers, whitewashed horizontal stacked cypress walls,
and exposed ceiling trusses, rafters and rafter tails that are
82
WBM august 2017