Supersized Design

Supersized Design

March 4, 2009

By Stacy Shoemaker Rauen
Photography by Michael LeGrand (Fresh and Vibrant) and Bill Miller (Urban Living)

It's not everyday that a design firm gets the chance to recreate an iconic restaurant brand—especially with almost complete creative freedom. But that's just what McDonald's asked Studio Gaia to do. "We wanted to bring a more consistent, modern design into our restaurants," says Max Carmona, McDonald's senior director of U.S. restaurant design (there's some 14,000 U.S. restaurants). "About half of our freestanding locations have experienced some renovation since 2003, but we thought what can we do to take us even a step further? The McDonald's in Europe have modern environments so it was a challenge for us to do the same in the U.S. We asked Studio Gaia for three different designs—we really didn't want to limit their creativity so we gave them less restrictions than more."

There's Urban Living. Designed for city locations (the first debuted in New York City), it's outfitted with various types of custom seating (lounge, barstool, banquette) done in chocolate, white, and gray, oversized white circular pendants, a wooden ceiling, beige and light wood pattern tile flooring, and large black and white iconic streetscape images. "A big part of McDonald's business is done in drive through. There's very limited people coming in, sitting down, and eating—they aren't inviting environments," explains Studio Gaia principal Ilan Waisbrod, adding that the design process was an entire office collaboration. "We wanted people to want to come inside, sit down, and open a computer; like Starbucks."

The second is dubbed Fresh and Vibrant (the first opened in Clermont, Florida), and as its name implies, its design is "about food and freshness," says Waisbrod, to highlight the company's extensive push on healthy alternatives and expanded coffee offerings. Bright colors prevail—chairs and tiles are done in red and yellow (McDonald's signature hues), while oversized produce graphics (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers) decorate custom transparent divider panels and line the inside of large white lampshades that hang from a slatted dark wood ceiling.

The designers also used wood slats and vibrant colors in the last prototype called Young and Cheerful. But here, the slats create a room within a room, encasing a long communal bar-height table, and yellow, orange, and green hues are used—on seating, tiles, and stripes that run from the cashier counter, across the floor, and up banquette seating. "It's more about design, about being hip," says Waisbrod of the prototype that opened in December in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Even though each concept has its own personality, there's one thing that connects them all—inexpensive, straightforward materials (tile, fabric, laminate, wood). "One thing Studio Gaia is good about, we never use extremely expensive materials," Waisbrod explains. "That's our style. The design is unique by itself, simple materials look more luxurious than they really are." And for a high-volume restaurant in a challenging economy, the solution paid off—Carmona and his team asked Studio Gaia for a fourth prototype. "The concepts are pushing the envelope for us, but that's exactly what we wanted," says Carmona, a 20-year McDonald's veteran, adding that McDonald's is concentrating on implementing the designs in new company-owned locations first. "We have modernized the brand in terms of the menu and the advertising. This is another piece of that."

www.studiogaia.com; www.mcdonalds.com

Sources for McDonald's
Clermont, Florida and New York City
Owners: McDonald's Corporation
Architecture Firms: CPH, Sanford,Florida (Fresh and Vibrant) and Giuseppe Anzalone, New York City (Urban Living)
Interior Design Firms: Studio Gaia, New York City (design development and specifications); McDonald's U.S.Restaurant Design, Oak Brook, Illinois;and Interior Systems, Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Installation and Manufacturing)

Fresh and Vibrant Interior Design
Team: Ilan Waisbrod, Elise Lee, and Maral Sarisozen (Studio Gaia); MaxCarmona, Liz Cothern, and Amy Caturano (McDonald's U.S. Restaurant Design); and Nic Stramotas and Rachel Chua (Interior Systems)

Urban Living Interior Design Team
Ilan Waisbrod, Peggy Leung, Yuni Rosita, and Patricia Walker (Studio Gaia); Max Carmona, Liz Cothern, and Amy Caturano (McDonald's U.S. Restaurant Design); and Nic Stramotas and Rachel Chua (Interior Systems, Inc.)

FRESH AND VIBRANT
Furnishings: Knoll, Davis Furniture, and ISI
Seating Fabric: UltraLeather
Graphic Panels: Veritas
Feature Ceiling: HunterDouglas
Lamp Shades: Oggi
Floor Tile: Dal-Tile and Eurowest

URBAN LIVING
White Dining Chairs/Barstools/Booth: Seating Interior Systems, Inc.

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