Denver pizza restaurant transformed into modular gallery by 11 x 17
Architecture studio 11 x 17 had to leave historic details intact when converting a restaurant in a mixed-use building in Denver, Colorado, into a gallery space for the Architectural League of New York.
When commissioned to design a seasonal gallery on the ground-floor level of a five-storey Denver building, 11 x 17 was instructed that they could puncture the drywall but had to preserve other details intact.
The studio was forced to work with preexisting elements of the pizza shop, such as booth seating, the waffle ceiling and even an oven.
In order to do so, it took a "panelized" approach, installing modular gypsum boards throughout the space, affixed by steel support systems.
"Due to this constraint, we had to figure out a strategy to 'lightly hang onto' what was already there," 11 x 17 co-principal Alex Yueyan Li told Dezeen.
"This, in turn, informs a tectonic language that is rather light, gentle, and delicate."
Instead of completely concealing the restaurant details, the studio leaned into this "tectonic approach", leaving gaps between the panels and the structure and keeping elements such as studs and clamps exposed.
According to the studio, this created a series of "thresholds", rather than enclosures.
"Original features, including ceramic tiles, wood-panel booths and granite countertops, remain visible and are reframed by the new structure," said 11 x 17.
"The result is a layered composition in which old and new materials remain in active dialogue."
The approach allows for a degree of modularity within the space, letting curators move around the panels depending on the type and scope of an exhibition.
Additional lighting was hung to dangle below the panels near eye level, in front of the glass windows that open out into the parking lot for the complex. The lighting allows for the gallery to be viewed at night as well.
Li said that the studio leaned into the mix of institutional, white-wall gallery architecture with the more casual components of the restaurants.
"The choice to include a white-walled gallery is also practical: to introduce a slightly institutional quality in contrast to the surrounding pizza-shop environment," said Li.
"We think that these two identities – one causal, one serious – when set against one another, could generate an intriguing mixed new identity for the neighbourhood."
Here, Li is also referring to the fact that the building in general is part of a larger conversion scheme, converting the University of Colorado Anschutz campus into an "urban living" structure.
11 x 17 was founded in 2022 and is based between Denver and Toronto, Canada.
Other recent conversion projects include Neuhäusl Hunal's conversion of a cinema into a restaurant in Prague and Petersen Rich's insertion of a white-wall gallery within the confines of a converted Detroit church.
The photography is by James Florio.
Project credits:
Graphic design: Scott Vander Zee
Project team: Alex Yueyan Li, Mahsa Malek, Gabriel Herrada Construction Team: Samantha Guerra, Jonah Williams, Tuul Batgerel, and Nicolas Villanueva
Support: Continuum Partners, University of Colorado Denver, Denver Art Museum
The post Denver pizza restaurant transformed into modular gallery by 11 x 17 appeared first on Dezeen.
