Project Overview
The Bartolotta Restaurants, a Milwaukee hospitality group, revitalized a 117-year-old historic building on Nagawicka Lake, previously occupied by the Seven Seas Seafood & Steak Restaurant. The new building, The Commodore – A Bartolotta Restaurant, will expand The Bartolotta Restaurants portfolio with this new restaurant and catering venue.
raSmith provided landscape architecture services for this project. Renovations and improvements to the site included a new entrance off Nagawicka Road that incorporates masonry entry walls and piers, enhanced landscape, lighting, and a central drive from the road to the porte-cochere at the main entrance. Permeable pavers were used in the central drive to manage stormwater and provide an enhanced aesthetic to the site paving.
The entire parking lot was redesigned to provide an intuitive circulation pattern that includes several landscape islands and robust buffer plantings on both the north and south lot lines to screen the parking from the adjacent residential properties. A bio-retention basin was installed to manage stormwater runoff from the new parking areas.
The areas around the building were designed to provide a variety of outdoor spaces and garden rooms for various events, weddings, dining, and entertainment, all with a beautiful view of the lake. A large stone and brick terrace with a water feature was designed adjacent to an existing pavilion that has also been renovated and repurposed for events.
Several existing, large oak trees were retained and protected, and new gardens were designed to provide vibrant color and texture throughout the seasons.
Project Gallery
