Patina Restaurant at the Walt Disney Concert Hall
Los Angeles
Belzberg Architects

Hagy Belzberg, AIA, brings folds of wood and contours of glass to a restaurant and caf? in L.A.'s Disney Concert Hall

By Joseph Giovannini

© Tom Bonner

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

The commission to design a restaurant and caf? in Walt Disney Concert Hall was fraught with potential pitfalls. The design could neither upstage Frank Gehry?s masterwork nor play possum. The most treacherous misstep could turn this corner of Disney Hall, along Los Angeles?s Grand Avenue, into ersatz Gehryland. ?We wanted to be respectful, but we had to have our own identity,? says Hagy Belzberg, the Santa Monica architect chosen from a long roster of local designers who submitted credentials for the coveted work.

Belzberg, whose previous restaurants and houses have been materially rich and spatially robust, had to work within Disney Hall?s prescribed shell. Here, he inherited a plate-glass facade: little more than a recessed strip subordinated to Gehry?s streaming forms. Existing doorways, already positioned in the facade, became starting points for Belzberg?s plan for the 5,000-square-foot ground-floor restaurant and 4,000-square-foot caf?.

As built, the restaurant?s main entry opens onto a waiting area in front of a bar. Wine bottles, arrayed with their corks forward, form a pattern behind a backlit, translucent wall. A small private party room lies to one side of the entry. A translucent curtain veils the room?s sidewalk views, while a picture window offers glimpses into the kitchen. To the other side of the entry, a large dining room appears in dark, muted, low-contrast colors. Sliding, square wall panels display art curated by the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art across the street.

For Belzberg?s high-end restaurant, the allusion to a theatrical curtain inspired the design. This venue, after all, would be most active before curtain time and after performances. The absence of a literal curtain in the performance hall?which has a thrust stage instead of a proscenium?gave the metaphor a provocative edge. Curtains, however limp, come to life as they are drawn and released. And the notion of freezing such motion inspired Belzberg to play that effect against the implied motion, or sailing forms, of the Disney facades.

Belzberg also responded to Gehry?s monumental building through the application of computers in the design process. Belzberg chose to enlist the computer, with form-Z software, to generate rather than confirm shapes. Visually evoking stretching motion, Belzberg created and froze ripples on-screen and transmitted them to milling machines, which carved rigid ?curtains? from solid panels of walnut two-by-fours laminated side by side. He placed these curtains through much of the restaurant, defining open spaces through slipped asymmetrical configurations. The ripples play against the walnut?s grain and the stock lumber?s module. Translating billowy ?sails? into wavy ?fabric,? the panels restate Gehry?s larger gestures in miniature. The ripples are deepest on the ceiling, where an undulant surface of curving luan plywood strips is illuminated by cold-cathode lights embedded in its interstitial troughs. A great wave of striated light, the ceiling provides a transitional scale between the panels and Gehry?s majestic curves.

See the December 2003 issue of Architectural Record for full article.

Location:
Los Angeles

Gross square footage:
Restaurant approximately 5,000 sq. ft., Cafe approximately 4,000 sq.ft.

Owner:
Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County

Architect:
Belzberg Architects, APC
1655 Stanford Street
Santa Monica, CA 90404
310-453-9611
Fax 310-453-9166
hagy@belzbergarchitects.com