Just Add Bordeaux

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 7/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

The painted caves of Lascaux and the fuselage of the Concorde may represent two very different pinnacles of human achievement—but a Francophile will happily point out that both are French. And both influenced Opus Interdisciplinary Design Studio principal Anthony Caradonna's decisions at Bar Solex in New York. "Choices centered on making minimal interventions," he says. For example, he retained and exposed much of the cavernlike 1,000-square-foot space's original red brick. The aeronautical references, however, demanded more innovation. Note the streamlined curves of the translucent plastic ceiling panels, the bartop of gleaming stainless steel, and, less immediately recognizable, a soffit's fiberboard panels laser-cut with tread patterns to suggest a runway. None of which should imply that Caradonna holds the planet's future in low regard. His design-build firm's zero-waste construction and use of eco-friendly materials stop comparisons between air travel and this wine bar dead in their carbon footprints.

1. Opus Interdisciplinary Design Studio principal Anthony Caradonna.
2. New York's Bar Solex, where laser-cut panels of paper pulp from the Homasote Company stretch for 55 feet along a sidewall. 800-257-9491 ;homasote.com.
1. The kitchen doors' perforated stainless-steel panels by the McNichols Co. 800-237-3820; mcnichols.com.
2. Router-cut birch for the bull-nose edge of the bar.
3. The entry soffit's laser-cut fiberboard from the Masonite International Corporation, 8 inches square and 1/8 inch thick. 800-895-2723; masonite.com.
4. Custom trim featuring laminated layers of MDF, Homasote, and Masonite.
5. The ceiling panels' plastic from the Primex Plastics Corporation. 800-222-5116; primexplastics.com.