Adaptive Re-Use of Urban Storage Spaces

Eating Together with Strangers, 2019

Two experimental cultural performance and dining spaces, designed and built by Supernormal and located next to each other in the mid-block courtyard of a former urban storage facility, explore the rituals of eating together in 21st century American culture. One extends the dining timeline to let the stories of the strangers at the table unfold; the other plays with the sometimes anonymous experience of the American diner counter and the question of eating in public, alone.

These projects are also examples of Supernormal’s experimentation with different forms of project delivery. In these projects we acted as both architect and general contractor, answering questions about the challenges and opportunities of taking on new roles that will fulfill our ambition to design and impact our world with greater agency.

A light veil creates space and separates the room from the city beyond, creating a space of intimacy and delight. A single table, designed to raise and lower to accommodate different modes of interaction, serves as a shared plate and a platform for story-telling with strangers. The hybrid restaurant and performance art space was designed and constructed on a tight budget. We radically reconfigured our methods of documentation on this project, releasing sets based upon available labor rather than percentage of completion. Along with several other design-build projects delivered during the pandemic, this project reinforced the realities of risk, contingency, and relationships in small scale construction.

Completed at the start of COVID-19 shut-down, this two-room space was nominated for a James Beard award only weeks before closing due to pandemic-related circumstances in 2023.