2022 Design Team of the Year finalist: Wire Road Brewing Co.

Shortly after opening Wire Road Brewing Co., Jeff Birchler, co-owner of the brewery with his wife Angela and friends Kary and Deanna Walker, told Springfield Business Journal their vision for the place.

“We want people to be able to come in and sit down, whether it’s over a pint of beer or cup of coffee, and engage in some conversation and just relax,” he said.

In the view of Tim Guillot, partner at Esterly Schneider & Associates Inc., they pulled it off.

“The building itself was not nearly as important as what the owners were trying to create, which was a community space in Battlefield, the building being a background to that,” he said.

The end result is a community hub, Guillot said, with space for food trucks, lawn games, a musical stage, a yard where children can play, an outside tap on the patio – and even Sunday yoga, all in the space of 1.6 acres.

“The biggest challenge was filling up that site,” Guillot said. “There was a lot of overgrown forest on a small lot, and it took a lot of foresight to figure out where to put the building. We worked with the owner and contractors, who went into the woods and marked the trees they wanted to save, and that’s how we worked through the entire design site.”

The finished product showcases a tap room filled with stainless steel tanks custom designed by Paul Mueller Co. There is also a 30-foot indoor bar, a covered patio with outdoor bar and a wooded lot with picnic tables near and far.

Guillot said one of the big challenges of the project was working through the pandemic, with its escalating construction costs.

“Nesbitt Construction was with us from the beginning to help us down the road, and we came out the other side just fine,” he said.

Wire Road was an especially enjoyable project for Guillot.

“It was really a fun project to be part of – to work with those guys to develop something new in Battlefield,” he said.