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By Michael Webb
Photography by John Linden
William Beauter and Jess Mullen-Carey, partners in Los Angeles-based firm MAKE Architecture, previously worked for architect Clive Wilkinson, a master of inventive, low-budget theatricality. There they honed the skills they have lately employed in designing wine bars, a car wash, and most recently, a dynamic storefront for new frozen yogurt store, Peach House, in San Gabriel, a predominantly Chinese-American community to the east of LA. The owners, Charlene Chiu and Kai Liang, found MAKE online, admired their Bodega Wine Bar in Pasadena, and asked them to create a distinctive, clean-lined prototype for future stores.
"We knew we had a limited budget, and chose to create the interior from bands of MDF [medium-density fiberboard]," says Beauter, adding that it cost about $100,000 to strip and build out the 1,100-square-foot space. "It's an inexpensive material and as easy to work with as wood in a repetitive pattern." Using sheets of flexible MDF, they lined the long narrow storefront with two-foot-wide strips that are overlaid like louvers. From the front of the store they appear as a rippling glossy white tunnel, seamlessly linking the walls and ceiling to the white epoxy floor; all which symbolizes the purity of the product and draws customers to the serving counter with its vibrant yellow front and backdrop. Turning around, guests find themselves looking at a rainbow of bright, fruit-inspired colors on the exposed edges of the bands, and an expanse of red beneath the store window.
Several of the bands peel out from the walls to create glass-topped tables supported on single-steel posts. A strip of colored laminated glass fills the slot below and yellow Panton chairs complement a scatter of high tables. "All the lively, vibrant tones can be found in a peach," says Mullen-Carey. "We wanted to peel one ribbon out to the street, but weren’t permitted to do so. That and the shift from white to the warmth of color exemplify the little tricks we like to play."
For more information, visit www.makearch.com.
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Juicy Fruit
June 10, 2008By Michael Webb
Photography by John Linden
William Beauter and Jess Mullen-Carey, partners in Los Angeles-based firm MAKE Architecture, previously worked for architect Clive Wilkinson, a master of inventive, low-budget theatricality. There they honed the skills they have lately employed in designing wine bars, a car wash, and most recently, a dynamic storefront for new frozen yogurt store, Peach House, in San Gabriel, a predominantly Chinese-American community to the east of LA. The owners, Charlene Chiu and Kai Liang, found MAKE online, admired their Bodega Wine Bar in Pasadena, and asked them to create a distinctive, clean-lined prototype for future stores. "We knew we had a limited budget, and chose to create the interior from bands of MDF [medium-density fiberboard]," says Beauter, adding that it cost about $100,000 to strip and build out the 1,100-square-foot space. "It's an inexpensive material and as easy to work with as wood in a repetitive pattern." Using sheets of flexible MDF, they lined the long narrow storefront with two-foot-wide strips that are overlaid like louvers. From the front of the store they appear as a rippling glossy white tunnel, seamlessly linking the walls and ceiling to the white epoxy floor; all which symbolizes the purity of the product and draws customers to the serving counter with its vibrant yellow front and backdrop. Turning around, guests find themselves looking at a rainbow of bright, fruit-inspired colors on the exposed edges of the bands, and an expanse of red beneath the store window. Several of the bands peel out from the walls to create glass-topped tables supported on single-steel posts. A strip of colored laminated glass fills the slot below and yellow Panton chairs complement a scatter of high tables. "All the lively, vibrant tones can be found in a peach," says Mullen-Carey. "We wanted to peel one ribbon out to the street, but weren’t permitted to do so. That and the shift from white to the warmth of color exemplify the little tricks we like to play."For more information, visit www.makearch.com.
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