Building Design Construction

hospitality facilities
BUILDING TRENDS ANALYSIS
The design originally called for a quarter
of the space to be outdoors. No, no, said
the chef, it must be completely enclosed,
but with more windows. The changes are
being made, because the developer is convinced
the restaurant will attract shoppers
to the center.
2. Chefs and owners are taking the
lead in design.
Chefs and owners are getting more and
more involved in the design process. “Customer
expectations are so much higher,”
says Rick McCormack, President of design
fi rm Studio McCormack, Costa Mesa, Calif.
“That’s caused us to raise our game.”
Mariela Alvarez, a designer with the New
York fi rm iCrave, suggests that “many of
them feel that if they don’t design the restaurant,
it’s not theirs.”
Food halls such as LeDistrict in New York City have become very popular with diners and vendors alike.
This HPH Hospitality-operated, iCrave-designed hall includes 13 culinary stations and 500 seats.
For the 30,290-sf Le District food market,
which opened in March 2015, Alvarez
recalls having several meetings with the
owner (HPH Restaurant Group), the chef,
and the director of operations devoted
entirely to picking materials.
Chef/owner involvement can be a
double-edged sword for Building Teams.
“Experienced owners know the customers
they are targeting, and can provide us with
ERIC LAIGNEL FOR ICRAVE
20,000 LEEKS UNDER THE SEA
In August, Champalar Holdings Pvt Ltd. will open a five-star luxury
resort on Huravalhi Island in the Maldives. The venue will include an
underwater restaurant, the second of its kind in the world. Both were
designed by M.J. Murphy Ltd., Auckland, New Zealand.
General contractor Fitzroy Engineering spent 10 months building
and outfitting the restaurant, which was submerged onto piles near a
coral reef in the Indian Ocean in March (bottom photo).
The 410-ton restaurant measures 18 meters long by 5.4 meters wide.
It is 13 meters tall, about 30% longer than a similar underwater eatery
M.J. Murphy designed 11 years ago for the Conrad Maldives Hotel (top
photo). The new facility will accommodate 24 diners.
The acrylic arch covering the new restaurant, five meters wide and
130 mm thick, lets diners feel engulfed by the ocean and aquatic life.
The end wall has a panoramic, 190-mm-thick acrylic
window that allows for spectacular views along the
sloping reef. Japan-based Nippura Co. was the
fabricator.
A week after the restaurant was submerged, three
concrete slabs inundated with live coral were lifted
onto steel outriggers. They will create a coral garden
to attract fish to the restaurant.
The restaurant will be accessible via a spiral
staircase. Most food will be brought in from an onshore
kitchen via dumbwaiter. A small kitchen in the
restaurant’s lobby will be used to prepare a limited
The world’s largest underwater restaurant—1,264
cm—will open this summer
at a resort in the Maldives. Its interior
will resemble the first of its kind (above),
which opened a decade ago.
amount of food and drinks.
In February, Tranzcarr Heavy Haulage moved the restaurant the five
miles from Fitzroy’s factory in New Plymouth, NZ, to Port Taranaki. Two
cranes with 400-ton capacities hoisted the structure onto a ship that
transported it to the Maldives over a three-week voyage.
The project team included Heavy Force (pilings contractor), Jackson
Engineering Advisers (air-conditioning consultant), Stuart McKechnie
Architects (interior design), Origin Fire Consultants (fire engineer), and
LHT Design (electrical consultant).
Mike Murphy, M.J. Murphy’s Managing Director, told BD+C that the
final cost of the restaurant itself will fall somewhere around US$6 million,
not including the access jetty back to the shore, the above-water
lounge-bar, the kitchens, toilets, and A/C plant room building.
COURTESY MJ MURPHY (RIGHT); CONRAD HOTELS
64 MAY 2016 BUILDING DESIGN+CONSTRUCTION www.BDCnetwork.com