Schweitzer BIM
Eating Out..... West...
Border Grill, Santa Monica
Border Grill, Las Vegas
Campanile
Ciudad restaurant 1998
Los Angeles, California
Photo: Douglas Hill
This is one of the most exciting downtown LA restaurants...and the food is great...
Ciudad is located in an 8,700-square-foot space on the ground floor of a downtown bank building. Because the space was deep with low ceilings in the front and high ceilings in the back, little natural light reached into the
space. The challenge was to animate the space and create a sense of light.
Schweitzer BIM stripped the room to its concrete walls and waffle-slab ceiling and installed a bar and a casual cantina area near the front. This area extends into the larger more open dining room behind.
Photo: Douglas Hill
Low dividers partly enclose two semi-private rooms for parties. The highly sculpted ceiling conceals the mechanical services and animates the entire room. Punched openings reveal the concrete structure of the building.
Photo: Douglas Hill
Sketch cortesy Schweitzer BIM
Custom hanging lights extend the composition and reflect off the warm pastel tones.
Photo: Douglas Hill
To finish the space, artists Su Huntley and Donna Muir animated the walls and ceiling with Miro-inspired murals.
To complement the spatial design, Schweitzer BIM also designed the dining and patio furniture, and the patterned tableware.
Sketch cortesy Schweitzer BIM
Photo: Douglas Hill
Project credits
Architecture: Schweitzer BIM, Inc.
Design team: Leslie Seymour, Kelly Boston-Olvera, Peter Striebniok.
General Contractor: Howard CDM
Murals: Su Huntley and Donna Muir
Graphics: Ph.D. / Michael Hodgeson
Photography: 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.
