Further to reinforce the sense of relaxed comfort and engagement among the diners, we designed banquettes with slightly lower seat and table height (16" seat height and 26" table top height instead of the standard seat height or 18" paired with a 29" table top height), close spacing, a mixture of high and low dining heights, smaller tables and chair widths — all to encourage a more intimate and casual character for the space (Figure 12). The restaurateur has combined this with a service style that is less formal than in the adjacent dining room. In aggregate, the design of the place is forged from its physical features and service style to achieve a vigor augmenting the character of the restaurant as a place all its own. We repeated this exercise at Aldo Sohm Wine Bar to great success (Figure 13). Design articulation also pertains to the fit and finish of features of larger scale, things present in the design that enhance a systematic performance. Again, consider lighting: we regard its presence as being either ambient — to define general illumination of a space — focused — to create areas of foreground and attention as in a table top or a flower display — or accentuating surfaces, textures and colors (Figure 14). When light fixtures are present they act as architectural features, defining space through cadence or implicit scale. We conceived the glass walls of The Modern, the metal screens at Zylo or Le Bernardin, the wine rack at Cielo, the pendant fixtures at Colicchio & Sons, and the ceiling element at New York Central as both sculptural elements, architectural features that produce scale and rhythm, and light fixtures whose presence is marked by their luminous qualities (Figures 15 A,B; 16 A,B).
Figure 12: Le Bernardin, seating detail
Figure 13: Aldo Sohm Wine Bar, seating detail
Figure 14: Light on walls to articulate material qualities
Figure 15A: Colicchio & Sons: Sketches for lighting
Figure 15B: Colicchio & Sons: light fixture
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