Aquavit
Michelin Rated Restaurant
New York, NY
Scandinavian restaurant served in a minimalist Nordic setting
Over these past three decades, Spacesmith has worked with Aquavit several times to adapt its design to reflect the restaurant’s evolution and shifts in the hospitality industry. For this most recent redesign, the goal was to create a welcoming destination to engage a fine-dining clientele that skews younger than it has in the past. Drawing upon Nordic sensibilities of light, space, texture and materiality, our team identified opportunities to create a warmer, more activated, dining experience.
The intervention with the largest impact was opening the kitchen to the main dining room. A solid wall was replaced with a gridded metal and glass window that enables patrons to witness the chef and her crew in action. Guests enjoy seeing the stages of preparation and the buzz of activity around creating Aquavit’s finely crafted Swedish cuisine. Now visible from the street and seen through the dining room window wall, pedestrians glimpse within, piquing interest and curiosity.
“I have known and worked with Michel Franck for the past 30 years and hold him and his skills as an architect and designer in high regard. When it came time to give Aquavit its first major renovation and update in the past 15 years, I did not hesitate to call Michel and his team at Spacesmith. Through Michel’s direction and leadership, the project team came to understand the Aquavit brand, clientele, and food offering, and how best to translate this into the new design and layout.”