Bar Basque – a recent CBB project in collaboration with Philip Koether Architects – is featured in the January-February 2011 issue of Hospitality Design magazine. The concept for this venue is the brainchild of Syd Mead, a famed “visual futurist” and art director of science fiction-themed films (Blade Runner). The rich, elegant appeal of the venue itself is achieved through the design team’s translation of Mead’s renderings into a real-life restaurant and bar.

To soften the intense color selected to embody the “robustness” of the Basque region, the lighting designers proposed that the curved red walls be translucent, and lit to glow from within. White LED sources and the drama of accent lighting balance the composition. A punched black band with blue LED backlighting – reminiscent of spaceship controls – underscores the restaurant’s futuristic theme. Using a vocabulary of only three sources, applied in imaginative ways and carefully detailed into the complex architecture, CBB’s compelling approach to its lighting definitively enhances Bar Basque’s visually striking yet comfortable ambience.