Bar Agricole by Aidlin Darling Design
San Francisco
Architects & Firms
Owner: Thad Vogler
Completion Date: August 2010
Program: A single-story, 4,000-square-foot restaurant and bar with a 1,600-square-foot garden in the industrial South of Market district of San Francisco. The project is an adaptive reuse of the single-story portion of a three-story historic warehouse. The rest of the building became offices, also designed by Aidlin Darling.
Design concept and solution: Drawing on sensibilities both rough and refined, the architects sought to complement the restaurant's seasonal, sustainable menu with warm textures and locally fabricated materials. To give the long, tall warehouse a more intimate scale, they suspended a wooden "hull" from the ceiling as a way of lowering the space's height on one side. Crafted from reclaimed whiskey-tank oak, the hull ceiling folds down at a right angle to form a wall behind the coffee bar and booths. Aidlin Darling fitted the warehouse's three existing skylight openings with delicate, twisting glass sculptures made from warped Pyrex cylinders, which puncture the hull and filter daylight down into the restaurant. The architects added additional joists to the original ceiling to support a new green roof, and they painted the planks white to set off the warm wood of the hull. Two locally fabricated bars made of board-formed concrete and old barn beams anchor the space. High-backed booths cast from inch-thick ribbons of ductal concrete have a clean silhouette and add a sleek touch to the interior. Bar Agricole's palette of reclaimed and locally fabricated materials, such as chairs made from a Napa Valley vineyard's white oak barrels, will help it meet its target of LEED-CI Platinum certification. Outside, the architects reduced the size of the parking lot to create a street-front garden and seating area lined with raised beds of herbs.
Cost: $850,000
Architect and Designer:
Aidlin Darling Design
500 3rd Street, Suite 410
San Francisco, CA 94107
415.974.5603 p
415.974.0849 f
PeopleOwner: Thad Vogler
Architect: Aidlin Darling Design Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit: Partners in Charge: Joshua Aidlin AIA, David Darling AIA Project Architect: Roslyn Cole AIA Project Team: Adrienne Swiatocha, Shane Curnyn, Adam Rouse
Contractor: Northern Sun Associates
Engineers: Structural Engineer: Berkeley Structural Design Mechanical Engineer: MHC Engineers
Consultants: Lighting Designer Acoustical Consultant Sustainability Consultant Graphics Food Service Consultant Glass Sculpture Design Custom Chair Design Metal Fabricator Concrete Fabricator Woodworker Wood Hull Fabricator Garden Fabricator
Photographer(s): Matthew Millman
Renderer(s): Aidlin Darling Design
CAD system, project management, or other software used: VectorWorks, SketchUp |
ProductsGlazing Glass: Supreme Glass Co. Skylights: Skylight and Sun
Doors Entrances: Supreme Glass Co.
Hardware Locksets: Schlage (interior), CR Laurence & Dorma (exterior)
Interior finishes Cabinetwork and custom woodwork: Cabinet Works (fabricator) and Restoration Timber (wood supplier) Paints and stains: Benjamin Moore Special surfacing: Wood Hull-Matarozzi Pelsinger Builders (fabricator) and Restoration Timber (wood supplier) Flooring: Concrete by Concreteworks
Furnishings Reception furniture: ductal concrete hoststand by Concreteworks with reclaimed wood top by Cabinet Works (fabricator) and Restoration Timber (wood supplier) Fixed seating: ductal concrete banquettes by Concreteworks Chairs: custom by Sebastian Parker, barstools from Restoration Tables: custom - Wood tops by Cabinet Works (fabricator) and Restoration Timber (wood supplier), metal base by Chris French Metal Bars: poured in place concrete by Concreteworks, reclaimed wood tops Cabinet Works (fabricator) and Restoration Timber (wood supplier) Glass sculptures by Nikolas Weinstein Studios Metal backbar by Chris French Metal Exterior concrete tables by Concreteworks, Marais chairs from Design within Reach
Lighting Interior ambient lighting: Tech Lighting, Hera Lighting, custom steel light fixtures fabricated by Chris French Metal Controls: Lutron
Conveyance Accessibility provision–lift: ThyssenKrupp Access Porch-Lift
Plumbing Custom sinks by Concreteworks with American Standard fittings, Toto toilets |
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