Beholder

This new restaurant project integrates a new modest addition to an unoccupied and abandoned existing neighborhood service building. Previously programmed as an automotive service building, the project site is located along a strong east-west collector street positioning itself between established neighborhoods in the early stages of revitalization and downtown Indianapolis.

The symbolic importance of the three street-facing garage doors provided the natural design progression of preserving these openings, by replacing the doors with contemporary glass-bayed dining vitrines to allow controlled natural light and views. These three bays become the historical thread, preserving the original openings with large crisp glazed bays, allowing the inside-outside connection without diluting either the old or the new. This contrast carries into the interior, retaining the original grit of the service station, leaving concrete block and graffiti as a backdrop to new, clean, and simple finishes.