Frankenmuth Brewery

The Frankenmuth Brewery is a four-level building that has survived a tornado and a fire since it was originally built more than a century ago. The top three floors are used as a brew pub and the bottom level as a banquet hall. It includes a kitchen, bar, restrooms, an enclosed banquet hall and an outdoor deck and seating area.

The brewery’s owners contacted Spicer Group, who partnered with RC Hendricks, a Saginaw-based construction firm, to do a design-build project and enclose the lower level’s outdoor deck area to increase the brewery’s seating capacity of their banquet room to about 275 people.

To make sure the patio could carry the weight of the structure that would be built on top of it, helical piers—sections of pipe with an auger on the end—were drilled 30 feet into the ground underneath the patio’s concrete floor. The patio was then enclosed using the same design and materials as the rest of the brewery, keeping the look industrial and uniform. Large, 10-feet-tall retractable window walls were installed riverside that allows the addition to retain an open air feel of the original patio, while still allowing for an enclosed space during inclement weather and retaining the beautiful views of the river.