Gray MagazineEverywhere you look there is a thoughtful detailed touch…
Every project comes with its own set of challenges. In the case of projects involving older buildings that are long on character but short on structure, much of the challenge can involve rehab work aimed at ensuring that the building will simply remain standing. Projects that involve new buildings are an altogether different matter – the work of shoring up an old building is relatively straightforward compared to the complex challenges involved in designing and building an authentic feeling character space in a raw concrete shell. The Stoneburner project involved just such a task – to build an Italian restaurant in a newly constructed shell; an upscale Italian restaurant with enough warm wood and earthy tile to make you forget that the building was only recently completed. James Weimann and Deming Maclise had collected a number of reclaimed items for the project – Kingwood paneling and ceiling details from an old Italian embassy, wrought iron gates, wire glass, a large finial… The Kingwood panels and the finial behind the bar bring an upscale feel to the space; reclaimed riddling racks, wrought iron gates, a barrel vault ceiling clad in reclaimed fir, custom dark stained booths with wood “knuckle” dividers and concave ends bring an earthy feel to what started as a concrete box. The end result is a space that feels far older than the building that houses it – walk in to Stoneburner and forget new Ballard, this is old Italy…
Team
- Matthias Scheiblehner
- Brian McCormick
- Gabe Stern
- Grant Eckman
- Ian Dugas
- Jeff Taipale
- Luther Chatel
- Matthew Hunsberger
- Nathan Towl
- Nils Christian
- Pat MacGregor
- Patrick McKnight
- Sebastian Kimura
- Tom Hall
- Tom McKnight
- Zach Wentzel
Collaborators
Stoneburner was built-out in collaboration with James Weimann, Deming Maclise, Jason Stoneburner, James Lechner, Amoreena Miller of Strata Architects, and Mike Skidmore Architects. Special thanks to Kemly Electric, Performance Mechanical, Fischer Plumbing, Above and Beyond Drywall, Tilestone Designs, and Crane Painting.
Press
The pair is known for their keen sense of style; their use of reclaimed, refurbished and antique furnishings in their gorgeous interiors, which are on display at Bastille andPoquitos.
” — Seattle MagazineThe bar’s woodwork once decorated the former Italian Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The pressed tin up above came from an old schoolhouse. The barrel-vaulted ceiling in the entrance is repurposed fir from the neighborhood. The lovely patterned tiles on the floor were custom made. Turn-of-the-century steel gates and a vintage San Francisco streetlight stand sentinel in the dining room, near a secluded wine room where bottles are stored head-down in old riddling racks used to make Champagne.
” — Seattle Times..burnished Brazilian kingwood panels stripped from a decommissioned Italian embassy in Buenos Aires, sheets of shatterproof glass from an old Sherman tank factory in Upstate New York, swing-out wooden bar stools from a nineteenth-century diner, pendant lights from the old New York Times building . . . The historic decor gestures at early-twentieth-century New York City, but mostly as an attempt to inscribe a sense of place upon a brand-new building—a challenge these partners had never before taken on. The blond stone building that Stoneburner inhabits is home to the new boutique Hotel Ballard, whose owners approached the duo to create its off-the-lobby restaurant even before Bastille happened in 2009.
” — Seattle Met…Everywhere you look there is a thoughtful detailed touch.
” — Gray Magazine
