The project represents Fry’s first ultracasual restaurant. He tapped local interior designer Smith Hanes to bring the new, approximately 3,500-square-foot spot at 1878 Piedmont Avenue NE to life. This week, prolific Atlanta author and restaurateur Ford Fry opens his latest eatery, Little Rey. Little Rey Opens, Featuring Design by Smith Hanes That’s why AD PRO is here to keep you informed for the week. Personally, I’d love to do something like Studio 54, inspired by that mythical American nightclub.With events for designers happening daily, and new projects cropping up all over the city, keeping track of all the goings-on in Atlanta can be a tall order. WC: More than just doing things differently, there are projects we’d like to do even more. The material will acquire the patina of time, and a 25-year-old velvet chair is one of the sexiest things we could ever wish for. I believe that if we take a chance, if we let the person sit in a chair that is entirely upholstered in velvet, all the rest just follows. We often get into a practical mindset, saying right away it’s too much. There’s always an “oh, I wish I’d upholstered all the chairs with velvet”. We had dreams that our clients might have liked, there could have been a budget for it, but they probably didn’t see the same worth in it that we did. (laughs) Of course I exaggerate, but when we visit a project, we always wonder what we could have done differently. Looking back, are there any projects you would have done differently? Is there anything that you’d still like to accomplish? SH: We only ever go back to the spaces we have developed once because otherwise we would need to keep redesigning them. Spaces have to be functional, but feelings, sound, smells and soul matter so much, that’s what we focus on above all else. SH: I’d like to reiterate something Win said: we want to work with patina and age, we love unfinished brass. Making several mistakes helps you work out the best approach. With practice, you begin to master ergonomic issues. Of course, this can be challenging, you have to consider functionality and the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) issues, but we still need to make sure the design remains beautiful while meeting all of these requirements. We use a lot of wood, steel, primary materials, and we shy away from new materials like vinyl composition tile (VCT) or porcelain tiles that look like wooden floors. We work very manually so that the soul of the spaces and objects are never lost. How do you strike a balance between comfort and the inherent needs of a public space? Win Collier: By trying to capture a kind of reality and an age-old savoir-faire, through processes stemming from the past. By creating such an expressive space, you are also offering people the freedom to express themselves. You often see people dressed in pink and green according to the space and taking photos of themselves. I remember once I saw a woman in a pink tutu, dressed like a ballerina. On a totally pink surface, everything becomes neutral, almost as if we were in a white room. Would it be over the top? Appropriate? The reality is that people feel comfortable in all the spaces, the rooms are practically all green or pink. During the design process, I remember talking to Janine, the project manager, wondering if we had taken things too far. It might not be wallpaper, but what makes Atrium such a special project? SH: It features beautiful colour and lighting, it’s bold too. So of course, the freedom that clients grant us is crucial. For example, the client of the Atrium project started by telling us about having been to the Beverly Hills Hotel several times and being inspired by fabulous wallpaper, and then asked us to create a space where people felt the same thing. Of course, this has a lot to do with our relationships with our client. We rarely say “remember that thing we created and how it worked out? Let’s do it on this project.” We have become a studio that is constantly reinventing itself. We’ve tried to work more like designers of settings, of environments, rather than simply imposing our design language. Almost 20 years after founding the practice, how do you counteract routine? Smith Hanes: Something we actively do is create a background story for each of our projects. Inês Graça: You strive to “design and create, rather than buy or hire”. They did this without holding back or hesitating, in an empathetic approach that preserves the patina of time and a sensitivity that is difficult to emulate. From the other side of the screen, the architect joined his friend and collaborator Win Collier to share with us his love of his profession, fashion and travel, freedom and extravagance.
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