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Grant/Fulton Recital Hall
HBNY (Parenthetical Space)
Hyundai Shops
Lusso
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
Stadtbahnstation Rathaus-Süd/ LRT station Rathaus-SüdCraftsteak
Architects design a restaurant to match the chef's culinary philosophy.
The chef Tom Colicchio believes that cooking of any kind is a craft, not an art. For his newest restaurant, Craftsteak, he plans to use the highest form of uncomplicated culinary craftsmanship to explore the full flavor of each artisanally raised ingredient on the menu, and serve these unadorned on separate plates for all to share.
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His approach to cooking motivated architects Bentel & Bentel to treat the existing space as a significant ingredient into which they wove a limited palette of oak, steel, and plaster in order to explore the essential qualities of each element. They used only the simplest craftsmanship required to join the parts together. Within these self-imposed parameters, the design had to respond to Colicchio’s desire for 225 seats, 2,000-bottle wine storage, and a 3,000-square-foot kitchen, spread over a 3,500-square-foot first floor and 4,450-square-foot cellar.
A new two-story steel and glass wine vault, a new rough plaster and blackened steel wall, existing arched concrete ceilings and riveted steel columns, and a new rhythmically patterned oak, bronze, and steel ceiling all knit together to modulate the scale of the 16-foot-high space of the first floor.
The expression of the parts that make up each old and new element forges a connection between what is seen and how it is made, while also bridging between the scale of the occupants and the overall room. The cool, straight rigidity of the steel-and-glass wine vault accentuates the rough texture of the plaster wall adjacent to it. Similarly, the syncopated rhythm of the new wood-plank ceiling and wall of the bar emphasizes the pattern of existing steel ceiling plates from which Nabisco’s bakery equipment used to hang.
All furnishings and fittings, such as the cherry and steel dining tables, were designed to celebrate their materials and the simple craftsmanship used to assemble them. The absence of any protective coating (other than beeswax) on these materials, and on the oak, steel, and leather elsewhere, intentionally promotes their natural ability to age with grace.
Formal name of project: Craftsteak
Location:
85 10th avenue, New York, NY
Gross square footage: 10,000 sq.ft.
Completion Date: August 2006
Total construction cost: $4.5 million
Owner: Foodcraft LLC (Tom Colicchio)
Architect:
Bentel & Bentel Architects/Planners LLP
22 Buckram Road
Locust Valley, NY 11560
www.bentelandbentel.com/
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