Hasta La Ideas

Local architecture studio Bench Architecture has topped a Brooklyn brewery with a pizzeria and bar outfitted in a “colourfully tactile palette” including a wall of aqua-blue tile.

In East Williamsburg, Lala’s Brooklyn Apizza shop is located above the Grimm Artisanal Ales brewery – a converted automobile shop that opened in 2018 and was also designed by Brooklyn-based Bench Architecture.

The second-floor pizzeria consists of a large open space flanked on either side by a pizza kitchen and terracotta-clad bar, while a series of bi-fold doors lead out onto a rooftop terrace.

“A colourfully tactile palette was used to frame two poles of the space,” the studio said.

The space sits on top of a converted autobody shop

At one end of the interior space, a pizza oven is surrounded by light green Portuguese tile, while a white mosaic tile was used to clad the oven itself.  A bar counter topped with moonstone and wrapped in corrugated wood frames the oven, with a small service window lined with the same moonstone placed to the side.

Across the space, a service bar was wrapped in fluted terracotta tiles and topped with a dark grey Mexican Cantera stone counter.

A wall of aqua-blue concrete tile sits behind the bar, extending along the space and outside onto the terrace.

Magenta-pink curtains line the back wall and a wood-slatted ceiling connects these two bars, which the studio refers to as “nodes”. The two countertops were designed to have contrasting materiality.

“These ‘rough’ and ‘polished’ nodes are unified by a curved wood-slat ceiling and magenta curtain which accent primary surfaces as well as soften the acoustics of the space,” said the studio.

An angled mirror was placed above the curtain and spans its width to visually connect the interior space to the terrace, according to the studio.

Outside, the terrace is flanked on both sides by walls of light pink and blue tile, with a Cantera stone floor covering the entirety of the space.

Simple wooden picnic tables populate both the interior dining area and outdoor space, with shelving and a rack of firewood dispersed around them.

Bench Architecture expanded upon similar themes it used for the brewery and taproom on the ground floor below, which opened in 2018.

Similar red-hued curtains line the space and a corrugated metal-clad bar was placed along the building’s front windows to provide space for brewery production.

A series of pendants hang from the ceiling, which marks an original mezzanine design for the space.

“A grid of hanging pendant lights create a ‘ceiling’ to the space, which outlines the extent of the original mezzanine design for the room, which was superseded by the rooftop extension,” said the studio.

Bench Architecture is a Brooklyn-based architecture studio founded by David Bench in 2020 that specializes in residential, retail and event spaces.

Other interior projects recently completed in the Williamsburg area include a residential loft that doubles as a performance space and a Kith store featuring a brick silo at its centre.

The photography is by Nicholas Venezia

Project credits:

Architecture and interiors: Bench Architecture
Construction manager: Bench Architecture
MEP: ABS Engineering
Structural: Becker

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