Building Design Construction

hospitality facilities
BUILDING TRENDS ANALYSIS
a lot of input,” says Gregory Gatserelia,
Partner, Gatserelia Design,
Beirut, Lebanon. (His latest work
includes the Art Deco–style, 1,000-
sm Play Restaurant & Lounge that
opened recently in Dubai.) “I don’t
believe in design for design’s sake,”
he says.
In Lebanon, he notes, diners “like
to see and be seen”; the “arrival
experience” is salient to a restaurant’s
design. In Europe, restaurants
are seen as “cozier,” more intimate
spaces: everything, but especially
the acoustics, must be fi ne-tuned
for privacy and discretion.
McCormack, a former VP-Design
for the Cheesecake Factory, does
a lot of work with multiunit restaurant
operators like Matchbox
and Wood Ranch. He says such clients
have a hard time adapting their design and
branding concepts for different markets and
demographics. “Our clients are focusing on
materials, colors, and fi nishes, and we’re
encouraging them to go farther.”
Working with chefs who have a strong vision
is “a plus,” says PCA’s Eclipse, whose
fi rm has had long-term relationships with
restaurant owners like Legal Seafoods.
PCA’s job, he says, is to help clients realize
their vision, even when it is not entirely clear
what that vision might be.
That job sometimes entails reining in a
client whose vision has outdistanced the
budget. Forté Specialty Contractors’ CEO
Scott Acton singles out his work on SushiSamba,
a Brazilian/Japanese/Peruvian fusion
restaurant in the Venetian hotel, in Las
Vegas. The designer, iCrave, hired Forté to
fabricate and install a series of red ribbons
throughout the dining room spaces. Forté
reduced the cost by $170,000 by recreating
the ribbons with plastic bands that
the contractor hung from wires in its shop
while it attached urethane side walls and
cast glass fi ber reinforced gypsum in place
to create different shapes for subsequent
installation.
PassionFish Bethesda in Maryland, a 10,000-sf seafood restaurant that opened last September, is divided
into several dining areas, one of which is dominated by a mural of swirling fish. The Building Team included
Gensler (interior design), Face Consultants (MEP) Rathgeber Goss Associates (SE), Potomac Construction
Services (GC), Lighting Workshop (lighting consultant), and SK&I (base building architect).
3. A more “democratic” market should
not mean a downgrade in quality.
Last fall, the National Restaurant Association
polled 1,575 members of the American
Culinary Institute. The second most-cited
trend, behind “locally sourced meats and
seafoods,” was “chef-driven fast-casual
concepts.”
Chefs are extending their brands down
market to meet the growing demand of
Americans to eat out. Alvarez notes that
food, in general, is “becoming democratized.”
And there are “a lot of customers
out there who can’t afford to go to high-end
restaurants,” adds Charlie Dusenberry,
CEO/President of ICS Restaurant Builders,
a GC in Fallbrook, Calif.
Gatserelia notes that Alain Ducasse—
who currently holds 21 Michelin stars, and
whose restaurants are among the priciest
on the planet—recently opened a restaurant
in Paris that has helmet racks in the
booths because so many patrons arrive by
motorcycle or bicycle.
This does not mean that targeting a
wider patron base must mean sacrifi cing
quality in the dining experience. As the
website FastCasual.com recently posted,
when it comes to restaurant design:
1. Don’t ignore the experience.
2. Don’t assume cuisine or healthfulness
can replace culture.
3. Don’t focus on the template; fi nd your
differentiator—in other words, no cookiecutter
designs, please.
4. Technology is elevating the dining
experience.
Restaurant developers, restaurateurs, and
their Building Teams are relying on technology
more than ever to create new experiences
for diners.
Lighting has rarely been as crucial to
restaurant design as it is today. “Lighting
sets the tone,” says iCrave’s Alvarez. Her
in-house team worked with lighting supplier
Cerno on the design of the 11,400-sf,
350-seat Ocean Prime Beverly Hills, which
opened in 2014, and on the 275-seat Ocean
Prime New York, which opened last year.
Gensler’s Lallement is working with a
lighting designer who is proposing to connect
Ketra-brand LED lamps to a touchpad.
This would allow the restaurant staff to
“curate” the lighting for different times of the
day and night, all but eliminating the need
for a conventional dimming system. Two
other sources for this article also pointed
approvingly to the Ketra lighting system.
Carbone, a 10,000-sf Italian restaurant,
@ KATE WARREN
66 MAY 2016 BUILDING DESIGN+CONSTRUCTION www.BDCnetwork.com