Lozoo Restaurant site: design: construction: size: awards:
New York, NY 2000 2001-2002 4,000 square feet James Beard Foundation Nominee, Outstanding Restaurant Design 2003 ID Magazine Awards, Design Distinction 2003
LTL ARCHITECTS
Above the datum line the high ceiling of the main dining room is wrapped in acoustical foam; linear incandescent lights set into the foam reveal its thickness.
Located on the edge of SoHo in New York City, the existing space for this Shanghainese restaurant was a complex combination of six rooms with varying floor levels and ceiling heights spread over three properties. This assemblage of disparate rooms presented a potential problem for the unity of the restaurant; instead, this idiosyncratic quality of the space became the leitmotif of the design. In order to unify the separate spaces and to highlight the unique volumes of each room, LTL introduced a prominent horizontal line, a datum materialized as a 1/4-inch-thick stainless steel strip that cuts through the whole restaurant, providing a continuous visual reference. The datum line sections the restaurant horizontally, with the lower half constructed from dark materials and the upper half in light materials. The white ceiling flows down and the dark floor rises up on each side to meet at the datum line, creating the sense of a space not determined by walls. Similarly, the datum engages and integrates the other significant components of the design: not only is it the joint between the floor material and the ceiling material, it also marks the top of the continuous felt banquette, the bar shelving, and the service station, as well as morphing into the collective sink.
ceiling floor
+9’-0”
-0’-9” +8’-0” -0’-5”
+7’-8” +0’-6” +11’-0”
+7’-5”
-0’-4”
-0’-4”
+5’-6” -1’-6” -10’-10”
LTL ARCHITECTS
Below, a 100’-long banquette is made from 10,000 linear feet of 3/4” felt strips. Translucent acrylic strips interspersed in these layers of the felt glow from lights located behind the banquette.
LTL ARCHITECTS
Because the height of the space that contains the bar made it difficult to place lights in the low ceiling, all the light comes from the floor, the banquette, the shelving, and the bar itself. Consequently, the ceiling is a smooth, unbroken surface. Acid-etched glass planks inlaid in the wood floor enable the work lights from the basement below to illuminate the bar.
The walnut bar is the top of a storage shelving unit, resting on the basement floor. An 8” gap between the bar floor and the storage unit permits glimpses of the space below. Custom walnut-and-steel bar stools, designed and fabricated by LTL, are welded to linear glides. Augmented by rollerblade wheels, the stools slide back and forth along the foot-rail located above the gap.
LTL ARCHITECTS
LTL ARCHITECTS
ceiling
floor
In the back dining room an acrylic sculpture designed and built by LTL releases water at the datum line. The water runs down the surface of a 4”-thick block of sanded acrylic composed of 120 horizontal layers. Flowers lodged in voids cut into the acrylic block are kept fresh by the recirculating water.
A continuous sink made from folded stainless steel serves the toilets for both genders. The mirrors are mated with upside-down faucets. When they are turned on, water pours from the datum line down the mirror’s reflective surface, blurring one’s reflection and intensifying the visual pleasure experienced in the restaurant.
LTL ARCHITECTS
LTL ARCHITECTS
Credits: client: project team: contractor: bar stools fabrication: mirrors: sink:
LTL ARCHITECTS
Greg Kan and Li Ping Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, David J. Lewis; David Takacs Yellow Square Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis Veyko Master Kitchen