Clubhouse at the Westin La Cantera Resort Palmer Course: San Antonio, TX.

Submitted by: Willima Zmistowski Associates, LLC 

Delivering nothing but the finest is the mission of Westin Resorts. The clubhouse at the La Cantera Resort Palmer Course is no exception. At the owner's request, architects William Zmistowski, Jr. AIA, Jeffrey Fossum, AIA, and Michael Olson, AIA of William Zmistowski Associates, LLC designed a 15,000-square-foot, Texas mission-style clubhouse. The design concept was to emulate the most traditional architecture style possible to represent the historical San Antonio hill country. The clubhouse layout is arranged around the signature elements--a bell tower and a rubble stone wall ruin--acting as icons of old San Antonio, where missions marked landmarks for travelers from a distance.

"San Antonio is noted for its historical Spanish missions, which are located along the San Antonio River," said Olson, who was design director on the project. "They run south along the river, and the most famous is The Alamo."

The architect, intending to revive a historical experience, mimicked the age-worn walls of the old Texas missions by employing regional limestone with a an artfully worn layer of stucco that reveals the stone underneath, as if from years of aging. "We spent a lot of time studying the architecture of the mission," said Olson. "[This included] how the stone was mortared in and installed by masons. We also studied the patterns." The resulting structure convincingly appears to be an aged part of the landscape, built in the mission tradition of hospitality and warmth.

The Spanish exterior was completed with traditional barrel-style clay roof tiles. The resulting building style was dubbed an "outpost" by the team, rather than a mission, because of its location. "While most missions were built along the river valley to have a source of water, the clubhouse would be considered an `outpost' because it is in the hills," according to Fossum, the project manager.

The use of stone, heavy timber, wood lintels, stucco walls, columns, and ornamental iron is consistent throughout the exterior and interior, as is common with open-architecture missions. The patina of age and hand-distressed woods of alder and mesquite blend beautifully with imported Italian tiles, copper accents, distressed leathers, Mexican- and Persian-style rugs and pots, and Old World-inspired finishes.

Despite the large scale of the materials themselves, the proportion of the rooms feel humbly residential, and the inviting warmth of the aged structure infuses La Cantera with a history and tradition that marries it to the city's heritage. The professional collaboration between architect/interior designer Zmistowski, and Denver-based interior designer James Kattman produced results that are remarkably authentic, and irresistibly inviting.