This 2,000-square-foot Chinese restaurant occupies a floor plan typical of New York City residential buildings; light wells located on each side of the tenement building give it a dog-bone-like shape. Rather than hiding this distinctive narrowed section between the front and the back, LTL accentuated the unique nature of each of the spaces. Employing a logic derived from the Surrealist game—the Exquisite Corpse—LTL configured the four spaces into distinct yet interlocked areas.

Each of these areas is defined and wrapped by contrasting materials that shift from hard at the most public street entry to soft at the most private room in the back of the space. Stone marks the front bar area adjacent to the public entry. The bar counter is made from individual strips of translucent colored acrylic stacked on edge. This material extends up to serve as a light canopy that spans the front dining area; a room composed entirely of bamboo planks.

 The walls, steps, and ceiling of the next zone, a narrow corridor containing the bathrooms and a wait station, are lined with the same stacked colored acrylic strips. The private dining room is enveloped by red velvet panels that turn this back room into an inhabitable padded booth, intentionally blurring the distinction between the space and the seats. At the thresholds between each of the four distinct areas, the materials’ edges are expressed, calling attention to the role of the material as a thickened skin or shell.

Project Credits

Xing Restaurant, 2004, New York, NY
Client: MiJo: Chow Down Management Inc.
Project team: Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, David J. Lewis; Eric Samuels, project manager; Lucas Cascardo, Alex Terzich, Matthew Roman, Katherine Hearey, Adam Fr Heary
Mechanical engineer: Jack Green Associates
Contractor: Gateway Design Group
Photographer: Michael Moran