In November 2015, the renovation-construction of the New Japanese Teppan grill restaurant was completed in Diamond Bar, California. Originally built in 1965, the building was renovated roughly two to three times.
The main design goal behind the project was to improve the entry space of the new restaurant. The existing building had an unattractive entry area with a traditional heavy roof structure combined with an unpleasant massive stone landscape.
Restructuring of the West-South building corner area with relocated entry doors from the west side to the South side proved successful, improving the atmosphere of restaurant entry. The design team proposed an architectural canopy at the west and south end, where the building was most visible from the main street and local entry road. Additionally, the west screen wall, made it possible to filter sunlight from the west, providing not only for unique design elements, but sustainable design features suited for desert like weather in California.
Choosing steel I beam for the entry canopy was a smart design solution, creating a sophisticated modern look. Metal sliding panels in front of the store front and canopy top panels above the entry doors were achieved by using treated corten-steel and custom designed laser cut patterns which were leveraged as pure architectural details. Warm Led Tube lighting tract supported details for articulation of the metal structure and concrete panel wall.
New storefront glazing at the South entry of the building with metal screen sliding panels and readjusted existing skylights, which were not used by the previous restaurant, provided architecturally filtered daylight.
The redesigned outdoor patio created dramatic exposure for the public. The freestanding water featured wall with metal screen on the east side of the patio was transformed into an architectural screen for the neighborhood.
Choosing a new grill system without a hood helped not only to resolve the lack of hood space problem on the roof, but also to design a clear interior ceiling space with respective original structural elements of the existing columns, beams and rafters.