Audrey at the Hammer Opens With Interiors by Fettle Interior Design Studio
With the opening of Audrey at the Hammer, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles has debuted the first full-service restaurant as part of a larger multi-phase renovation.
"As the Hammer has grown its success, and continued to become a real destination for people, it has become clear that the museum really needed a full restaurant," architect Michael Maltzan tells AD PRO.
The restaurant is anchored by a bar that brings the outdoors in, using a specially crafted bi-folding window that opens up to the courtyard. "The bar is really the key element that makes the space so successful," says the restaurant’s designer, Tom Parker of Fettle Interior Design Studio.
According to restaurateur Soa Davies Forrest, "The space that existed before I took this project on was so stark, so cold. It didn't have the feeling of a restaurant or oasis." A design solution was needed to make the courtyard in particular more comfortable and inviting.
"The idea was really to soften the courtyard with as much upholstery and fabrics as possible," Parker says. Outdoor seating centers around two Chinese elm trees wrapped in banquettes with olive green cushions. Inside, curved banquettes and Gubi Beetle chairs add warmth with a textural mix of mohair and leather. Erasing the divide between courtyard and dining room, the restaurant successfully draws guests in from the museum galleries.
The space features a series of lanterns by artist Jorge Pardo, which the Hammer originally commissioned for a gala in 2011. Following the decision to incorporate these lights into the new space, museum director Ann Philbin asked Pardo to install his brightly colored tile work along the back niche wall, as well.
"It ties everything together," Davies Forrest says of the final mosaic. "It is such a special element to the decor."
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