Florida’s Atlantic coast barrier islands were settled long after the mainland, with the first tentative settlements in Indian River County occurring in the 1920’s. The Riomar Club is a golf course right on the Atlantic Ocean, organized by early islanders from the Midwest.

The neighborhood is largely residential, but the club sits across the road from the old Riomar Club, which is now St. Edwards School. The immediate area is dominated by live oak trees, something members rightly regard as a singular asset of the property.

There has been an explosion of new golf courses in the area, with ever longer courses and clubhouses with ever more overweening ambition, but Riomar has long maintained an endearing cranky, contrarian informality.

The club asked us to compare the costs and feasibility of expanding and renovating the existing club, and razing the existing club and building a new club altogether. The program calls for a cart barn, a large dining room, kitchen, card rooms, and locker rooms. This is the proposal for a new club.

The preponderance of the club sits back from the road in order to preserve the live oaks. The basic configuration of the design maximizes views to the course and toward the ocean. It allows remote ends of the scheme to be quite close to one another, and to contain and isolate the parking lot. Two outdoor spaces organize the club into separate spheres relating to golf, and dining and entertainment.

The cart barn extends toward the road as the most conspicuous element of the project. Placing it so close to Club Drive separates it from the rest of the club and places it next to the first tee. It keeps the cart storage from blocking views of the course, but it also requires that the most utilitarian part of the program can be a sort of public face for the club. Spaces in between the cart barn and the principal dining room transition naturally from golf related functions along the north side facing the first tee, to lockers, and card and dining rooms at the south side of the courtyard. The entry garden provides long views of the golf course through a dogtrot porch at the center of the east wing of the courtyard.