JACKDAW RESTAURANT
Aurora, Colorado
The concept is based on a modern Irish pub with emphasis on the jackdaw bird, a small crow, and its playful mischievous ways. The community tables and their live wood edges work as a common theme between the restaurant and the lobby, and invite the hotel guests into the “nest” marked by a unique pattern on the ceiling created with lighting and wooden panels.
To weave interest into the space, contrast was used throughout. The ceiling goes from bright to black, the lighting is linear and small circles, the areas go from bright to moody. Without putting up walls, the lighting helped to create zones in the restaurant, giving visitors a choice of moody intimate spaces or bright, welcoming, and inviting community areas. To keep things consistent, the pendants and linear lighting were all on the same level, creating a plane of light to keep from looking scattered and disorganized. Modern lighting was used throughout, without a focus on the fixtures but with a focus on the lighting itself, shown perfectly at the bar. The drink bottles glow, but it takes some effort to figure out where the lighting is coming from, hearkening back to the whimsical and playful ways of the jackdaw bird.
Architectural integration of the lighting was key in this design. The hanging circular lights were chosen to visually recede into the black sound dampening panels and black ceiling, while the linear lighting was placed along the beams of the nest concept, as well as doubling as leading lines through the space helping to elongate the restaurant and move people throughout.
One of the challenges was totally reimagining the space from the previously dated, cluttered, and compressed space. The result was a much needed open, decluttered, modern, and unique restaurant and bar.
Client: DMA Engineering
Hospitality, Lighting Design