Projects: Bar/Lounge

Staff -- Interior Design, 12/1/2011 2:00:00 AM

Winner: Department of Architecture Co.
Project: Drift
Location: Pattaya, Thailand

From the Hilton Pataya hotel's cavernous conchlike elevator lobby, visitors travel 16 stories above the Gulf of Thailand to enter a reception area awash in serene shades of gray and white. The expanse of wave-patterned carpet here echoes the ceiling installation's undulations-which flow into the aptly named Drift bar. Prin­cipals Amata Luphaiboon and Twitee Vajrabhaya Teparkum used Rhinoceros software to design the ceiling's sheer strips of polyester. For ease of installation and removal for cleaning, Velcro along their top edges attaches to pads on aluminum pieces that hang from the ceiling slab, incised with slots for the xenon fixtures that create the rippling effect. Those who drift into Drift encounter pebble-shape tables in fiberglass topped by mirror-polished stainless steel, a bar in white-oak veneer and solid-surfacing, and a window wall overlooking the outdoor lounge and reflecting pool. In the restrooms, the beach theme continues with seashells dangling from the chandeliers.

Merit: CCS Architecture
Project: 25 Lusk
Location: San Francisco­

A fire orb in polished stainless steel descends­ from a rough-hewn Douglas fir ceiling beam in a 1917 smokehouse and meatpacking facility.

Merit: Isay Weinfeld
Project: Hotel Fasano las Piedras
Location: Punta del Este, Uruguay

The ipe-lined bar-lounge shares its Cor-Ten steel pavilion with changing rooms for the hotel's swimming pool, filling a natural depression.

Merit: Michael Hsu Office of Architecture
Project: Icenhauer's
Location: Austin, Texas

The original cedar facade and gable roof were preserved­ when a 19th-century house became a cocktail lounge with a contemporary addition.