Pitfire Culver City is an architectural
transformation of a Shakey’s pizza parlor to a contemporary artisanal pizza
restaurant. We took a concrete block building with many layers, stripped
it down to its bare skin, which we then sealed. The interior moves include a
modern, bright red steel hood over the wood burning oven that alters the
typical ‘earthy’ hearth reading in favor of a bright center point to the
room. Through many new skylights and large cuts in the exterior wall we
brought enough light in so that the restaurateurs do not need to use electrical
lighting until sunset. Throughout the space strong primary colors highlight
objects and our custom furniture and the background elements are rendered
either in plywood walls, Kraft paper ceilings, and simple marble
counters. There is an intentional play between high design- an homage to the palette of Lina Bo Bardi- and lowly
pop culture that follows the lead of the restaurant’s ‘serious’ pizza at
reasonable prices motto. On the exterior the block wall has been painted
with a hugely exaggerated pop ‘brick wall’, there is an over-long bike rack and
a mini indoor/outdoor garden is split by the huge glass sliding wall. The
restaurant is EXTREMELY kid friendly and has a rather large family fan base.
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