ChoSun Galbi Restaurant
Los Angeles
Richard Lundquist, AA

A varied menu of different spaces matches the piquancy of Korean cuisine

© Mark Luthringer

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

By Suzanne Stephens

A well-known restaurateur in the Korean community, owned two restaurants before opening ChoSun Galbi with her husband, who is the chef. This time she wanted to create a venue with a strong design presence that would differentiate itself from the slew of eateries in the Koreatown section of L.A. The site itself was a challenge: a corner lot on busy four-lane Olympic Boulevard noted for a cacophony of noise and visual clutter.

Originally the restaurant was to occupy a renovated brick storefront building. Once the design was under way, however, it became clear that this building had structural problems. So the architect replaced it with an economical, low-key, concrete-block structure, while adding more formally active spaces at the rear, where he could place the entrance adjacent to parking for cars.

Guests arriving at the rear enter the restaurant along a path that skims by an outdoor dining patio framed by a steel pergola, which is planted with lush vegetation that blocks the view of the cars. The pergola is created from rolled I-beams employed as both curved columns and flying arches, and it carries a trellis of steel fins covered by thick vines of bougainvillea.

Immediately inside the restaurant, two private dining rooms enclosed in basketlike forms of bamboo and steel create a buffer zone between the patio dining area and the restaurant proper. Here, four arches of steel, 4 feet wide and 40 feet long, are placed in a staggered configuration every 20 feet, so that a structure of 80 feet is generated. This formation yields two discrete dining rooms, 20 by 16 feet, with two areas, also 20 by 16 feet, left over for circulation and additional dining. To give the rooms a sense of warmth, the architect wrapped the ceiling and screen walls with bamboo.

As guests come into the main section of the restaurant, they find themselves at a central reception area and bar, where aluminum countertops mimic the soft curves of the arches in the outer region. From here they enter the main dining room, which, while it may not have a fancy rolled-steel roof or bamboo-screen walls, has a strong architectonic quality by virtue of the cluster of stainless-steel hoods placed over the dining tables. The suspended rectilinear volumes for venting fumes and the banquette seating help subdivide the group of dining tables with barbecue grills into semiprivate alcoves.

A bank of private dining rooms partitioned by plastic mesh screens runs along the perimeter (Olympic Boulevard) wall to accommodate parties of 10 or larger groups of
30 or more. Another room with five tables provides a quasi-private space for diners in the curved corner of the building.

See the November 2002 issue of Architectural Record for full coverage of this project.

Formal name of Project:
ChoSun Galbi Restaurant

Location:
Los Angeles

Gross square footage:
8,000 sq. ft.

Client:
Kyong M. Ji

Architect:
Richard Lundquist, AA
1257 Vista Court
Glendale, Calif. 91205
www.rcl.net