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Aidlin Darling Design balances raw and polished surfaces in SFMOMA's In Situ restaurant

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Aidlin Darling Design balances raw and polished surfaces in SFMOMA's In Situ restaurant

San Francisco–based Aidlin Darling Design (ADD) and three-starred Michelin chef Corey Lee have teamed up for In Situ, a new 150-seat restaurant located within the original Mario Botta–designed portion of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art that was recently expanded by Snøhetta.

The restaurant is designed as an alternate-dimension art museum, where “borrowed” dishes on loan from the kitchens of the world’s most renowned chefs make up the menu, meticulously recreated by Lee’s team. And so, ADD has rendered an intentionally spare interior made of mostly-found surfaces, with many of the existing, roughed-out textures of the extant space remaining—some polished, some raw. Other interior elements, inserted neatly into that rough, gray box, act as bespoke elements: a sculptural timber ceiling, custom-made tables hewn from raw logs, and delicate bar stools and lounge chairs. Site-specific artworks are also scattered around the restaurant, which is lit from one side by a large storefront window opening onto Third Street.

The space is divided into two dining areas. The first, a large, informal dining room, is populated by bar-top and communal tables, is capped by the sculptural timber ceiling. Its surface is made up of delicately jagged and parallel wooden boards and extends across both dining rooms, alternating between various degrees of geometric relief. Further into the space, the second, more formal dining room is made up of intimate seating areas.

In Situ
151 Third Street
San Francisco, CA
Tel: 415-941 6050
Designer: Aidlin Darling Design (ADD)

[In Situ also won our 2016 Best of Design Award for Interior > Retail/Hospitality. Click here to learn more!]

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