Architects: Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Project team: Stanley Saitowitz, Alan Tse
General Contractor: Brian Spiers
Acoustics: Dale Pekrul
Project year: 2007
Photographs: Rien van Rijthoven
Conduit Restaurant emerged from the found circumstances. The ground floor commercial space in a new residential building had a low ceiling and a tangled maze of plumbing, sprinkler and electrical conduits serving the residences above.
To cover these pipes would have further reduced the space. Instead, even more conduits were layered over the existing to counteract and remediate the situation.
The design inspired the name……
At the entry is a long fireplace. Behind, table seating fills the room. A series of conduit screens in galvanized or copper color divide the tables. On the right is an open bar made of stacked bars of conduit. Glass shelves support the bottles. The other end is banquet seating on a bench, hovering in light, divided into a series of conduit alcoves. At the end of the room another bar frames the open kitchen, a well-lit stage for the cooks. Seating at this bar allows patrons to watch the performance close up. The floor has black granite paths with a large mat that locates the black wood laminate tables.
Behind the kitchen is a glass and conduit-enclosed cellar and private dining room. Wine is stored in a perforated black wood wall. Beyond are the bathroom enclosures of entirely etched glass, with a continuous trough sink and long mirror above.
The atmosphere is sleek and hip, as well as rich and warm. Conduit disproves the old adage by making a silk purse from a sow’s ear.
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- original photographs
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- floor plan
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- ceiling plan
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- pipes details
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- bar details
Interesting interior. Somehow it connects cold and warm feeling. maybe because mix of steel and hard surfaces with copper and timber. Nice muted, but lively at the same time feeling. i like it. Lumiges
Nice lines, and the color are in good shape, but I don’t think that the materials are the same, I think they are in direct conflict. But it is a nice Design!
great idea! The original photos are amazing, I can’t imagine what is above this space!
I’d like to eat there.
very cool(d)…..
nice!!
WOW!!! amazing
I have eaten here and it it is quite nice. It comes across much darker (light wise not color wise) when you are actually there, which is a plus for the atmosphere.
The service is also quite nice and the menu is terrific as well as tasty.
A well rounded project for sure.
did you see the original photos? At least they didn’t have to cover a hack job… right? I wonder if the inspector made sure electricians installed the empty conduits? Or made them mark the one’s with wire? Or had a fit because in the new 2008 code unused conduit must be removed?
Caffine,
yeh, but the existing conduit pipes were just all over the place, will had to spend some time cleaning them up. the inspector was very confused during the inspection
fabulous
Nice mood for a restaurant
i can imagine the difficulty in the design
this is juz amazin n unique…..!