Located an hour North of Lake Tahoe in a scenic area known as the Lost Sierra’s, Nakoma Golf Resort’s crown jewel is a stunning clubhouse originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright In 1929 but shelved by the Great Depression. At that time, the planned location was atop a hill in Madison, Wisconsin. The name Nakoma is derived from the Chippewa language meaning “the wise one.”

The clubhouse was eventually built seventy – six years later in Clio, California. In 2005, the owners of a large planned resort property purchased the rights to the original design working with Taliesin West to update the building to current day code subsequently building the clubhouse on their land. As fate would have it, their plans to develop the resort were thwarted by the Great Recession.

The Schomac Group later purchased Nakoma Golf Resort at a bankruptcy sale. In terrible disrepair, the clubhouse needed over a million dollars to remedy only partially completed construction as well as flooding which occurred while the property sat empty. The renovated Nakoma clubhouse sits proudly atop a hill as originally conceived serving the Dragon Golf Course as well as the larger resort property.

As Schomac Group’s plans materialized for the property, we were commissioned to renovate a cocktail lounge in the clubhouse converting it into a shoulder season dining venue while at the same time retaining the lounge element for peak summer season.

The work scope included all new furnishings, some new fixtures, redesign and rebuilding of the banquette seating area wrapping the perimeter of the main room and commissioned artwork that doubled as signage for the lounge. The bar received new barstools and a small cocktail seating area was added nearby. This project was completed for a modest thirty thousand dollars.