Morimoto
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Karim Rashid Inc.

An industrial design aesthetic comes to a bold restaurant that’s handmade—just like the sushi rolls

© David Joseph/Snaps

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

By Clifford A. Pearson

When restaurant mogul Stephen Starr showed Karim Rashid two locations for the restaurant—one conventionally proportioned and the other just 21 feet wide and 240 feet long—the designer recommended the more difficult, narrow property. "It’s an amazing space," exclaims Rashid. "It forces you to be creative." Fitting a dining room with 122 seats and a sushi bar with 13 stools onto one level was a challenge.

But a 19-foot-high ceiling relieves any sense of claustrophobia and allowed Rashid to tuck a small bar and lounge onto a mezzanine overlooking the dining room. Rest rooms and food-preparation spaces occupy a basement level.

Rashid’s design strategy was to wrap the restaurant’s interior with soft, organic forms, then anchor it with a rigid grid of seating booths. Using the same computer modeling he employs when developing furniture and other manufactured objects, he designed walls that bulge out as much as 18 inches at mid-height to form a wiggling strip running the length of the restaurant. He animated the ceiling, as well, creating a rolling surface made of bamboo.

For the seating area, though, he took a more Cartesian approach, lining the two long sides of the restaurant with fixed, two-person tables and running a procession of glass booths with alternating four- and six-person tables down the middle of the floor. Set within the 6-inch-wide glass partitions are light-emitting diodes (LED) that slowly, continuously change color and intensity. Clear green glass tables and off-white leather seating offer neutral keys to the pulsating visuals. In the back of the restaurant, an L-shaped, glass sushi bar provides another calming element.

While Rashid used the same design methodology for this project as he would for a chair or a watch, he wasn’t able to build it as a manufactured object. In the end, the biomorphic walls were made the old-fashioned way: with plywood, metal lathe, and hand-applied Japanese semigloss stucco.

During the design process, chef Morimoto made just two requests: that he be visible when working and that customers be able to use the bathrooms without having to touch anything. Excited by the first request, Rashid tried placing the sushi bar in the middle of the restaurant. But the narrow space made this scheme unworkable. So he put the sushi bar in the back but kept it open to view. Downstairs, he eliminated doors to the rest rooms by tucking stalls behind a freestanding partition and specifying automatic faucets and hand dryers.

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

Formal name of Project:
ChoSun Galbi Restaurant

Location:
Philadelphia

Gross square footage:
10,800 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$1.3 million

Client:
Steven Starr

Architect:
Karim Rashid Inc.
357 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011
p 212 9298657
f 212 929 0247
www.karimrashid.com