Schweitzer BIM
Eating Out..... West...
The Border Grill, Santa Monica
Border Grill, Las Vegas
Ciudad
Campanile Restaurant
Los Angeles, California
Photo: Douglas Hill
Down the street from CITY restaurant on La Brea Avenue in a building built in 1926 by Lita Grey Chaplin, wife of Charlie Chaplin, is the restaurant of Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton. Former chefs at Spago's, Mark and Nancy chose Schweitzer BIM to help them in finding this building of historical significance to launch their first restaurant/bakery endeavor. Careful attention was paid in the design stage to maintain the character of the existing building while weaving in a new design that would fulfill the needs of the restaurant.
Photo: Douglas Hill
The existing 10,000-square-foot building with its exterior courtyard and billboard-like, sheet metal tower, began to set the stage for what the new architecture should be. Schweitzer's intent of keeping all of the buildings existing decorative details and playing off them with new forms that would have the same strength as the old and yet not to mimic them.
Photo: Douglas Hill
Schweitzer BIM started by creating two enclosed areas in the existing courtyard. The first is an open-air entry/patio area which the bar opens on to. The second is a sky lit dining room with views into the the open kitchen and to the sheet metal tower above. Once through these spaces, you enter into a much lower, darker, space which compresses you before entering into the main dining room with its double height volume and mezzanine dining rooms flanking both sides.
Photo: Douglas Hill
Because of Schweitzer BIM's enthusiasm to create spaces that are coherent, they designed and produced bar stools and light-disk- fixtures for the bar area which would fit into the clients budget.
Photo: Douglas Hill
Schweitzer BIM Projects:
Joshua Tree
Aloha
As part of the work of Schweitzer BIM, Josh Schweitzer has also designed furniture and light fixtures for many projects. He has also designed eyeglass frames produced by l.a. Eyeworks, a line of tableware for Swid-Powell and a line of jewelry for ACME Studios.
In collaboration with artists Su Huntley and Donna Muir, Josh Schweitzer has designed sets for an opera which opened in Munich, Germany in 1994.
Schweitzer, principal of Schweitzer BIM, grew up in the Midwest. He graduated with a Bachelor of Economics degree from Pitzer College in Claremont, CA and then attended the Architecture School of the University of Kansas from which he received his Master of Architecture degree in 1980. Since then he has been a guest lecturer and critic.
