Terroni Los Angeles

National City Bank Reimagined

Housed in the very well-pre­served Nation­al City Bank build­ing of 1924 in the heart of LA’s Deco Down­town dis­trict, Ter­roni DTLA com­bines metic­u­lous­ly detailed, authen­tic new mate­ri­als with the exposed robust ele­ments of the his­toric archi­tec­ture of its host. Our eclec­tic ‘cas­sarec­cia’ Ter­roni approach is nec­es­sar­i­ly scaled-up here to match the grandeur of the vin­tage bank hall. The main design chal­lenge was to cre­ate dis­tinct, inti­mate din­ing and bar expe­ri­ences with­in the sin­gle large vol­ume and its restored and untouch­able sur­faces.

Locat­ed at Spring & 8th & Main, the restau­rant has mon­u­men­tal, street-front win­dows on three sides. Var­i­ous areas of inti­mate din­ing under­neath the grandeur of the 30-foot high space are achieved by embrac­ing ele­ments that sur­round booths and ban­quettes with high, exte­ri­or wood shells, and uphol­stered inner seat­ing. Nev­er beyond shoul­der height, the instal­la­tions still allow for the dra­mat­ic space to be omnipresent. It is at the new mechan­i­cal mez­za­nine where artic­u­lat­ed walls of three-dimen­sion­al graph­ics and large glass pro­sciut­to refrig­er­a­tors flank the bank hall.

“Locat­ed in the Nation­al City Bank build­ing at 8th and Spring, the new restau­rant embraces the building’s his­toric archi­tec­tur­al details and adds a con­tem­po­rary twist.” Wal­ter P. Moore

Key to the def­i­n­i­tion of the main din­ing room is the demis­ing, lay­ered screen, adorned with plas­ter and punched met­al instal­la­tion that func­tions as the ‘back-bar’ along the main bar that trans­forms from ser­vice bar, to cock­tail bar, to brunch bar, to cof­fee bar along a sculpt­ed CNC carved stone to wood face.

CNC carved white oak at open kitchen.

Three dis­tinct cus­tom light fix­tures define three char­ac­ter­is­tic areas of the hos­pi­tal­i­ty expe­ri­ence, includ­ing the last install­ment of the Ter­roni trip­tych of race-track chan­de­liers. The first at Ter­roni Ade­laide inspired by Pista di Fio­ra­no, the sec­ond at Ter­roni Price Street inspired by the Auto­dro­mo di Imo­la, and the third here at Ter­roni DTLA inspired by Auto­dro­mo Nazionale Mon­za whose cal­cu­lat­ed curves sit in charged con­trast to the gild­ed cof­fered ceil­ing of 1924.

The ‘Mon­za’ light, in our race­track series, is mod­elled after the his­toric race­track in Mon­za, just north of Milan, Italy.

Past the main din­ing room is a sec­ond small­er space that could serve as a pri­vate din­ing room with a long com­mu­nal table orga­nized under a craft­ed leather chevron ceil­ing that cul­mi­nates in a vin­tage chan­de­lier cen­tred on a spe­cial round ‘chef’s table.’ Orig­i­nal stairs to the restau­ran­t’s sec­ond floor leads to anoth­er pri­vate din­ing area and a glazed wine room.

The restau­rant has now brought the same din­ing DNA, as well as its pen­chant for a Gio Pon­ti-meets-Car­lo Molli­no mid- cen­tu­ry Ital­ian design aes­thet­ic, to a super-sized sec­ond out­post in an ornate for­mer bank build­ing in down­town LA’s con­tin­u­al­ly gen­tri­fy­ing His­toric Core dis­trict. Ter­roni LA has been award­ed the AIA / LA Restau­rant Design Awards for Excel­lence, as well as, the LABC Los Ange­les Archi­tec­tur­al Award of Excel­lence.

Project Facts

  • Client

    Ter­roni Restau­rants

  • Location

    Los Ange­les, Cal­i­for­nia

  • Size

    6,500 sq. ft.

  • Status

    Com­plete

  • Affiliate Architect

    Archi­tect of Record — Blue­print Man­age­ment & Con­struc­tion Inc.

  • Sub-Consultant Team

    Struc­tur­al — Bas­so Engi­neer­ing

    Kitchen — Tep­per Design and Equip­ment

    Mechan­i­cal — BASSO Engi­neer­ing Inc.

    Elec­tri­cal — M&S Elec­tri­cal Engi­neer­ing Inc.

  • General Contractor

    Mar­shall Group

  • Photography

    Andrew Lee­son

  • Artist / Graphics

    Graph­ic Design & Sig­nage — Small Project Stu­dio

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