hospitality facilities BUILDING TRENDS ANALYSIS a lot of input,” says Gregory Gatserelia, Partner, Gatserelia <strong>Design</strong>, 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-<strong>Design</strong> 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 <strong>Building</strong> Team included Gensler (interior design), Face Consultants (MEP) Rathgeber Goss Associates (SE), Potomac <strong>Construction</strong> 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 <strong>Building</strong> 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
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