Kate Mantilini

(click on photos in the image below for a larger view)

PROJECT:
Convert an extant 6,400 s.f. commercial bank into a restaurant.

PROGRAM:
"A roadside steakhouse for the future, with a clock"----Marilyn Lewis

SITE:
Northwest corner of a major urban intersection attached to a parking structure in a mid-rise office complex, in Beverly Hills, California, USA

SOLUTION NOTES:
A new building (wall element) engulfs the old (columns).

The building is conceived as a permanent work with a solar clock.

A conceptual orrey, piercing through a 14 foot diameter oculus, marks a stamp. This sculpture is a visual device that distills, condenses, describes, and demonstrates the primary esthetic fabric of the building.

The prickly cactus-like exterior vacillates between surface and volume, while maintaining an urban tactile sensibility. This project can be read in terms other than those of sight alone.

A psychological profile of this building reveals aggressive, obsessive, active characteristics, though tempered by a coolness and corporate cordiality.

The interior space is vaguely exterior. It's hall like quality reflects it's public intention. People in this space tend to be extremely conscious of their position.

The roofscape of erupting walls, perched mechanical equipment and sundial are at the service of the adjacent tower community.