The West Lynn Cafe started life as a service station on a corner in a historic residentially scaled, mixed-use neighborhood. Former repair bays, office and bathroom were repurposed into spaces required to operate a restaurant. A new interior dining space was added in the form of a simple double- height volume. A theatrical experience was created for both diners and pedestrians by sloping the ceiling upwards- proscenium style- toward the tall window bay overlooking the street corner. This ceiling plane continues on the exterior and morphs into a metal antennae-like awning that dissipates into the sky, taking visual cues from an adjacent radio tower.

The new exterior skin follows the rhythm established by the building’s original glossy white paneled façade with new grey concrete panels secured with shiny white road divider buttons. The interior roof trusses are exposed, yet camouflaged by panels cut, painted, and arrayed in a quilt pattern. Space leaks up and around the pattern blurring the notion of ceiling and scale. A high window brings in direct southern light above the pattern but beneath the ceiling to add movement and shadows.

Diners can watch the neighborhood street activity and at night enjoy a moonrise through the tall windows, while passersby can enjoy the theatre of the dining experience occurring inside. Interior walls provided gallery space for local artists. Street side, tables and chairs rest under a light steel and wood pergola stretched across the front of the building toward the corner, providing additional dining space and strengthening the promenade’s edge..