This upscale cafe required space both unified and intimate on two floors of a long narrow building. The architects designed a small triangular opening between the floors which become a square opening when reflected in a mirrored wall. The opening, articulated with columns and cornices, divides the space into smaller areas, ties the two floors together and becomes the central focus of the restaurant. The theme of the triangle becoming the square is carried throughout the rest of the design. The triangular tables are often used in pairs as squares. The railings are composed of triangles and squares; triangles appear in the floor pattern and even the air ducts triangular.
All this is done with relatively inexpensive materials used in an elegant traditional design language. The floor is an industrial epoxy seamless flooring in which metal dividing strips are used in terrazzo fashion to create a pattern of triangles and squares. The steel floor structure is left exposed with its sprayed on fireproofing painted deep blue. The table tops and bar are made of amonite which has the appearance of granite and the warmth of wood. The paint flecks of different colors in it is actually commercial trunk coating. Much of the design’s surface variety was intentionally done in paint to allow inexpensive periodic changes of color palette.
