An owner-led, multi-phase design-build renovation of one of the Atlantic coast's most decorated resorts — seven signature areas, executed inside an occupied Forbes Five-Star property.
Eau Palm Beach is one of South Florida's most iconic oceanfront properties — seven private acres of Atlantic beachfront in Manalapan, formerly the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach. It rebranded in 2013 and has held a Forbes Five-Star rating for more than a decade, one of the rarest distinctions in American hospitality.
The resort encompasses 309 guestrooms and suites, a 42,000-square-foot spa, multiple dining outlets including the signature Polpo restaurant, and a member place in Preferred Hotels & Resorts' Legend Collection — reserved for the highest echelon of independent luxury. The guest who stays at Eau notices thread count. They notice lighting. They notice glass.
This is the context in which ACG worked.
Eau's renovation wasn't delivered through a general contractor. Ownership and resort management ran the project themselves — a design-build program that put ACG in the room with the principals who cared about the outcome most, working straight to their standard, on their timing, without a layer in between.
Seven signature areas. Seven scopes. Each with its own design intent, its own timeline, and its own standard of execution. The phases ranged from statement pieces visible from the beach to the precise details that only professionals notice. All of it had to be built inside an occupied, operating Five-Star resort — around dinner service at Polpo, around spa appointments, around guests checking in.
The photo of Connor Walsh at the resort's new front doors, with the Eau monogram mat at his feet, captures the arrangement. Not a sub-sub. A trusted partner, owner-direct, on seven private acres of the Atlantic.
From the first impression at the front door to the rear facade no guest is supposed to notice — the same material specification, the same alignment tolerance, the same installer.
A custom decorative glass entrance set — the resort's first impression from S Ocean Blvd. Curved, interlocking pattern in white framing, executed to the detail level the address demands. The glass a guest touches before they touch anything else on the property.
The centerpiece of the renovation. A bi-fold opening glass wall for Polpo restaurant that collapses the boundary between the dining room and the ocean terrace. When it opens, guests dine with the Atlantic uninterrupted — palm trees, sea breeze, and the full oceanfront panorama. A Euro-Wall system carrying the engineering load of a hurricane coast and the aesthetic of Five-Star hospitality.
Arched glass windows throughout the fine dining room — custom curved glass in arched frames. Chandeliers visible through the glass, crisp white linens below, the Atlantic beyond. A dining room designed around what the glass frames and reveals.
Floor-to-ceiling glazing for the resort's children's activity center and ice cream shop. Natural light and ocean views built into what could have been an interior space. The same standard of glass, applied to every corner of the property — because at Eau, there is no second-tier standard.
New glazing for the expansion of the resort's 42,000-square-foot Eau Spa — one of the largest resort spas in Florida. Glass for the new addition areas, maintaining the spa's connection to natural light and the Palm Beach landscape that makes a treatment there a treatment worth booking.
Updated glazing for the rear entry points of the resort — the back-of-house entrances that staff, service vehicles, and some guests use. Held to the same standard as the front, because at a Forbes Five-Star property, there is no "back-of-house" standard. Every surface is reviewed. Every surface is seen.
The work was sequenced around dinner service, around spa appointments, around guests checking in. Cranes arrived before arrivals. Punch lists closed before turndown. The seventh phase isn't a scope you can point at — it's the discipline that made the other six possible without the resort ever losing a reservation or a star.
A Forbes Five-Star rating isn't awarded — it's earned, and it's re-evaluated every year. The criteria cover hundreds of touch points: the response time on a guest request, the temperature of the towels, the condition of every surface in every space.
Glass is everywhere in a resort. It's the lobby entry. It's the restaurant wall. It's the spa window. It's the view from the guestroom. At this standard, glazing isn't infrastructure — it's design. Every frame aligned. Every seal invisible. Every pane crystal clear, without distortion or imperfection.
Guests at this level notice glass the way they notice thread count. They can't always name what they're seeing, but they feel it when it's right — and they definitely notice when it isn't.
At a Forbes Five-Star property, the glazing standard isn't "meets code." Every frame has to be aligned. Every seal invisible. Every pane crystal clear.
Eau Palm Beach was one of ACG's earliest projects. Connor Walsh built the relationship directly with ownership and resort management — before ACG had a portfolio of hospitality projects to show.
It was the project that proved something: that a lean, owner-operated glazing company could deliver at the highest level of hospitality construction in Palm Beach County. Direct with the people who cared about the outcome most. Held to the standard that evaluated the entire resort every year.
The photo of Connor standing at the new front doors — Eau monogram at his feet, custom entrance he helped design and install behind him — represents that. Not just a completed scope. A relationship, a standard set, and a standard met.
For ACG, this project is the reference. When a luxury hotel or resort developer asks what we've done at this level, the answer is standing on the Atlantic coast in Manalapan — Forbes Five-Star, and seven signature areas of custom glazing that have held up to the daily scrutiny of the most demanding guests in the country.
Eau Palm Beach is located at 100 S Ocean Blvd, Manalapan, Florida 33462 — seven private acres of Atlantic Ocean beachfront in Palm Beach County. The resort is approximately 15 minutes south of Palm Beach International Airport and minutes from the Town of Palm Beach.
ACG executed a seven-phase glazing renovation across the resort: the new custom front entrance doors, Polpo restaurant's bi-fold ocean wall, Polpo's arched interior windows, the Kids Club and ice cream shop floor-to-ceiling glazing, the Eau Spa additions, the updated rear facade entrances, and the overall sequencing discipline that kept the resort operating through every phase.
No. The renovation was delivered as an owner-led design-build. ACG worked directly with resort ownership and management — no GC layer — on each of the seven phases.
The Polpo bi-fold ocean wall is a Euro-Wall system. Other phases use impact-rated storefront and curtainwall with custom framing to accommodate the resort's arched openings and decorative-glass entrance doors.
The work was sequenced around resort operations — around Polpo's dinner service, around Eau Spa appointments, around guest arrivals. Cranes and heavy work were scheduled before guest hours; daily punch-list closure happened before turndown. The resort never lost a reservation or a star during any phase of the renovation.
Yes. Eau Palm Beach has held a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating for more than a decade and is a member of Preferred Hotels & Resorts' Legend Collection, reserved for the highest echelon of independent luxury properties.
Yes. Eau Palm Beach is ACG's reference project for Forbes Five-Star hospitality glazing. We've since delivered for additional luxury hotels, oceanfront clubs, and private communities across Florida. If you're an owner, operator, or design-build partner at a property of this caliber, send us the plans and we'll quote within 48 hours.
If you're an owner, operator, or design-build partner renovating a luxury resort, hotel, or private club — get in touch. ACG will quote your scope within 48 hours and bring the same owner-direct standard we ran at Eau.