2022 AIA|LA Restaurant Design Awards Announced

Recipients are recognized for exceptional contributions to the culinary scene as we continue our return to in-person dining.

+ 2022 Restaurant Design Award Winning Images

(For a complete list of winners plus jury notes, scroll down.)

Tuesday, September 13, 2022 (Los Angeles, CA)-The American Institute of Architects, 

Los Angeles Chapter (AIA|LA), announced its 2022 AIA|LA Restaurant Design Awards winners at a festive ceremony held this evening at the A+R Showroom in ROW DTLA. Awards were given for Best Café, Best Restaurant, and Best Al Fresco Café or Restaurant.

In addition to the juried awards, two projects–Best Restaurant and Best Café–were voted “People’s Choice Winners.” Online voters selected their favorites from among 8 finalists chosen by the 2022 AIA|LA Restaurant Design Awards jury.

This year’s jury included chef and cookbook author Jennifer Hill Booker and architect Anthony Poon, FAIA. Chef Jennifer is a Georgia Grown Executive Chef for the GA Department of Agriculture, the Culinary Explorer for the Georgia Department of Tourism and Travel, and the founder of Southern Divas of the New South Dinner Series. She is also the current President of the prestigious Atlanta chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, a member of SlowFood-Atlanta, and of Atlanta’s No Kid Hungry Atlanta Society. Chef Jennifer currently sits on the James Beard Foundation Food Waste Advisory Council.

Juror Anthony Poon, FAIA-Principal, POON DESIGN, is an award-winning, LEED-accredited architect, published author, classically-trained musician, and mixed-media artist. His architecture studio, Poon Design Inc., was a recipient of the 2009 and 2011 AIA|LA Restaurant Design Award, and a finalist in 2012. The work of Poon Design has received over 50 national honors, been chronicled in hundreds of publications, and promotes the thesis: “Good design belongs to everyone.”

The AIALA Restaurant Design Awards are open to owners, architects, and designers–AIA Members and Non-Members alike–for projects anywhere in the world. All projects must have been completed in the last four years (finished no earlier than January 1, 2018). Winning entries this year were located in the cities of Los Angeles, Costa Mesa, and West Hollywood in Southern California; Chandler, Arizona; and Prague, Czech Republic.

“This is our seventeenth year of presenting the Restaurant Design Awards,” said AIA|LA Executive Director, Carlo Caccavale, Hon. AIALA, who originated the program. “As an organization that represents the architecture and design professions, we want to recognize outstanding achievements in a category that demands a unique blend of form and function. Ultimately, restaurants are among our most important gathering places. Our collective experience of these past couple of years underscores even more significantly their value and purpose in our everyday lives and in our communities.”

The Awards are listed here by level: Honor, Merit, and Citation, with Honor being highest. 

(Not all levels are awarded in each category)

Category: Cafés

Café

Merit 

Café Name: Dripp Coffee Bar 

Firm: Abramson Architects

Location: Costa Mesa, CA

Instagram: @abramsonarchitects

Photographer Name: Michael Wells Photography

Jury Comments: Dripp Coffee Bar’s retro vibe gives you a boost before your first sip. The ‘coffee drip’ wall style gives added height and depth to what otherwise would have been a cramped space.  

Category: Best Al Fresco Restaurant/Café

Al Fresco Restaurant/Café

Honor 

Restaurant Name: BOTTEGA LOUIE – WEHO

Firm: BULLI

Location: West Hollywood, CA

Instagram: @designbulli

Photographer Name: Tim Hirschmann

Jury Comments: This luxurious design is intoxicating in all its excess and indulgence. Not often does an owner’s budget allow an architect to flex the muscles. I applaud the investigation and fetishization of every possible detail–every species of stone and vein of marble. The floor plan’s openness is more than simply flexible space and fresh air; it is a story of community engagement, letting the city in, allowing a restaurant to breathe. Bottega Louie is an endeavor of true artisanal craft and perspiration, never letting any moment go unconsidered. 

Category: Restaurants

Restaurant

Honor + People’s Choice Winner

Restaurant Name: Kodō

Firm: M Royce Architecture in collaboration with Gryspace

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Instagram: @mroycearchitecture @gry.space

Photographer Name: gry space

Jury Comments: So rare to see such elemental beauty and exquisite simplicity. The modest palette and an economy of moves speak softly but memorably. A restaurant does not need to shout to make an impactful statement. Rarely has such moodiness become so haunting and brilliant. Rarely has such melancholy become so raw and sublime. The design is not just a strategic combination of concrete, stone, and metal, but a palette of history and magnificence.

Honor

Restaurant Name: Masaryčka Restaurant

Firm: archicraft

Location: Prague, Czechia

Instagram: @archicraft_cz

Photographer Name: Tomáš Dittrich

Jury Comments: The design wonderfully plays with scale both grand and intimate. The unassuming palette of taupes and blacks handsomely complements the soft white backdrop of classical arches, columns, and cornices from Prague’s oldest steam-engine railway station. The delicate steel framework implies individual social areas while still embracing the collection of diners. The signature ceiling treatment unifies the restaurant with striking sculptural personality, reading like an art installation.

Merit

Restaurant Name: Yunomi Handroll

Firm: Design Opera

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Instagram: @designopera

Photographer Name: Taiyo Watanabe

Jury Comments: With this reductive approach of a handful of thoughtful ideas, the results deliver drama, charm, and sensuality. Surfaces are sculpted, treated with the human touch, glazed with the human soul. Blacks, grays, and whites appear vibrant and rich in tone. Whether a seashell, enigma, water ripples, or land topography, the feature wall creates an Alice-in-Wonderland invitation to the unknown. Using traditional materials in a contemporary manner honors the legacies of a culture while looking to the future. 

Citation

Restaurant Name: Prime

Firm: Preen Inc.

Location: Chandler, AZ

Instagram: @preeninc

Photographer Name: Brandon Barré

Jury Comments: Careful thought was put into Prime restaurant’s interior lines, creating the illusion of floating in air. The cohesiveness of multiple rooms in such a large space speaks to the clever use of scale and design.

Category: People’s Choice Winner-Café

People’s Choice Winner – Café

Restaurant Name: Rykn Cafe

Firm: M Royce Architecture in collaboration with Gryspace

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Instagram: @mroycearchitecture @gry.space

Photographer Name: gry space

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