LEANING PEAR BAR EXPANSION
Nestled in the heart of Texas hill country, the Leaning Pear Restaurant is a vibrant third space for the community of Wimberley. A desire to expand their food and beverage offerings while also creating more opportunities to take in the scenic views surrounding the site led to a collaboration with Colorspace to enlarge the existing outdoor seating areas and create more dedicated bar space.
The site design extends the existing patio with a new deck that captures views of Cypress Creek while carefully integrating the canopy of existing trees with seating. New steel and cedar pergolas provide outdoor seating with welcome enclosure and shade while steel planters help define different deck areas; and an enlarged conditioned bar space replaces existing facilities while also providing a small ancillary kitchen and additional indoor seating. The deck design connects to a new single-span heavy timber pedestrian bridge and accessible path leading to additional off-site pervious parking, all of which also minimizes impacts to existing tree cover.
As part of the building systems design, existing rainwater barrels on site are wrapped into a functional rainwater reuse system that will provide both on-site irrigation for new plantings, as well as provide graywater to flush new bathroom fixtures. New landscaped areas focus culinary plantings at the existing restaurant entrance, while native grasses and pollinator-supportive specimens are sited along the new pedestrian path.
The material palette both inside and out, including western red cedar, galvanized steel, recycled tile, and polished concrete, strives to incorporate sustainable and healthy finishes and is informed by cues from the existing restaurant and site. Local artwork is to be featured above the bar and a custom board-and-batten wall finish harkens back to the original Leaning Pear location.
