Our latest restaurant design project is a bit of a phoenix, with a sleek dining room and bar rising from a long-vacant office suite in Alexandria, Virginia. MacMillan Spirit House is the second restaurant venture for Derek Andersen and Emma Hand, who also own The MacMillan Whisky Room in the Mosaic District. At 3,800 SF, the space includes a covered patio area built for all-weather comfort and is more than twice as large as the couple’s Fairfax-based eatery. This larger footprint will accommodate more customers and allow for more food and beverage offerings.

The addition of MacMillan Spirit House to 500 Montgomery is part of an effort to transform this 1900s-era office building into a mixed-use property activated by community-serving commercial and cultural uses. This type of conversion is not without its share of architectural challenges Reimagining a first-floor office—with low ceilings and base building systems (HVAC and other mechanical components)—into a full-service restaurant and tasting bar requires some creativity and a deep understanding of bar and restaurant design principles.

Our architectural renderings reconfigured large spaces into smaller, intimate social areas using texture, color, and lighting. Luckily, a whiskey bar lends itself to darker finishes, such as rich wood paneling, that can mask pre-existing elements that might otherwise be out of character for this use. We strategically left exposed utility lines and hanging pendant light fixtures that shield the ceiling plane and add a sense of height. Details such as these create a unique experience in each area of the establishment.