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By Tara Mastrelli
Photography by Michael Weber and Yuki Kawana
"We had to get our passports checked," jokes AvroKO principal Adam Farmerie of working in Manhattan's Theater District for their latest project Omido. Owner Chaly Levy, who the New York City design firm had worked with previously on Sapa in Chelsea, had the concept (a sushi restaurant) and the space, but turned to AvroKO to make it happen. "We initially went in there and said, 'this is probably not a good idea; this is a really weird location,'" says Farmerie. "And so that's where the genesis of some of the idea making started. How can we come up with a concept that would be insular?"
After scouring through various Japanese concepts and themes, ultimately the team decided upon the idea of a shrine or a small house (the word omido means both). Says Farmerie: "We thought we would use the idea of a shrine and a place that you'd seek solace, to sort of be a metaphor for getting out of the city, out of Times Square, and off of Broadway."
And they pulled it off. Guests are transported from the screeching energy of Broadway into the quiet space first through a glass and steel door, and then through a wooden facade. "It's really like a sound barrier, and emotional barrier, that once you get in there, the wood just envelops you," says Farmerie. Four-inch pieces of Plyboo wrap the walls and ceiling, intentionally misaligned to allow flickering votive candles to rest in the resulting open spaces; end-grain Plyboo tables line one wall; and a solid sushi bar made of aroku wood fills the center of the room. Simple glass globes, inspired by traditional Japanese rice paper lanterns, hang above the bar. "We ended up designing them and building them just from parts we could scrape together from the Bowery," notes Farmerie.
But the restaurant's true conversation piece is found in the private dining alcove, where the designers took the most literal translation of a Japanese shrine and tied 10,000 authentic Omikuji (Japanese fortunes) to the ceiling. (And yes, AvroKO staff members did tie them up themselves.)
For more information visit www.avroko.com or www.omidonyc.com.
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Sacred Space
April 29, 2008Photography by Michael Weber and Yuki Kawana
"We had to get our passports checked," jokes AvroKO principal Adam Farmerie of working in Manhattan's Theater District for their latest project Omido. Owner Chaly Levy, who the New York City design firm had worked with previously on Sapa in Chelsea, had the concept (a sushi restaurant) and the space, but turned to AvroKO to make it happen. "We initially went in there and said, 'this is probably not a good idea; this is a really weird location,'" says Farmerie. "And so that's where the genesis of some of the idea making started. How can we come up with a concept that would be insular?"
For more information visit www.avroko.com or www.omidonyc.com.
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