Woodinville is a small, up-and-coming town half an hour northeast of Seattle with a population of 14,000. In 2001, the town proposed a civic campus project to enhance the burgeoning community’s existing character and charm. The project, currently known as the School House District, centers around the Old Woodinville School House in existence since the 1900s. Bassetti was contracted to highlight and maintain the historic character of the Old Woodinville School House while reworking its aged interior to accommodate a shared space between Walla Walla Steak Co. and Crossbuck Brewing.
Restoration of the schoolhouse included masonry repair and repointing, window glazing and sashes repair, and updates to the existing Woodinville sign, steel lamps, and wall sconces. Overhead roll-up doors were inserted that open onto the outdoor dining area and the exterior commons of the surrounding apartment community. Exposed brick walls, wood columns, and new glulam columns provide expansive spaces saturated in daylight. Upholstered stool seating, copper accents, and low lighting give the Steak Company bar a formal, yet comfortable feel. The lit open shelving, showcasing bottles and glassware, creates a golden backdrop to the scene that contrasts with the shiny, industrial stainless steel of the open kitchen beyond.
The Crossbuck Brewing Tap Room strikes a more playful tone, with ceramic tiles set into the bar, bright orange stools, and shelves set against the windows where the bottles act like suncatchers, creating colorful, dappled light in the space. The original radiators were reclaimed and mounted on steel pipe to function as a screen between the tap room and the corridor to the bathroom on the first floor, while the existing schoolhouse doors were reused in a comparable manner on the second floor.
By fusing the best of the old and the new in each space it occupies, Walla Walla Steak Co. has created a brand as distinctive as it is familiar, while anchoring the School House District as a favored destination and a showcase in downtown Woodinville.
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