Team B Architecture & Design

One of the most critical aspects of our design for .cinci was the millwork built by . Each piece executed a different step of a tightly coordinated dance between ductwork, lighting, point of sale, sightlines, dish storage, wine temping, and more, all while making their own unique statements.

From the host stand, the guests’ and chefs’ point of view carves through the built environment back to the open kitchen. Booths line the walls, slipping in and out to define the dining areas, and more characters emerge from the margins.

Through careful planning and coordination, all of these serendipitous elements come together as a cohesive whole.


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Wildweed, Cincinnati, OH

An amorphous tile-clad wine cooler, drink well, and point of sale hearkens the entrance to a disconcertingly spiritual utility hallway. A basilical barrel vault terminates into an apse and seasonal votive niche by the dishwashing room and toilet.

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cinci

The Plan and RCP for .cinci

The millwork built-ins define the distinct dining zones: the front bar with small party-sized seating, linear seating along the north wall, a chef’s counter at the open kitchen, and fixed booths along the restroom core creating a formal setting to terminate the view at the host stand. Housed within the millwork is storage, electrical, and HVAC to allow an unobstructed hard ceiling.

The clear ceiling plane allows for a continuous custom light “trough” to meander the space linking the different zones of the restaurant.

A couple of aerial views of our 8 single family homes with as part of the first phase of their ARPA funded affordable housing new construction in Walnut Hills.

The second photo shows 7 of the 8 in context with the neighboring structures.

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A glimpse into .cinci, a restaurant in Cincinnati that we completed earlier this summer. The space pairs well with the unique dishes that define their ethos—playfully defying conventional approaches with a refined palette and a clear sense of place.

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General contractor: CCG
Millwork fabrication:

Eden Park Station No. 7 is a historic structure located within Eden Park in Cincinnati, Ohio. Constructed in the late nineteenth century as a pump house to raise water from the Ohio River to the Eden Park Standpipe–the station was able to move 16 million gallons of water at the height of its use. As an important public work of Cincinnati architect Samuel Hannaford, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Working with a local non-profit organization that focuses on sustainability programming and education, we did an in-depth analysis of Station No. 7’s interior and the immediate exterior to repurpose it as a learning center and headquarters for the organization.

Our study looked at the site at a planning scale, connecting the building to existing paths and trails, parking studies to minimize the impact on historic Eden Park, locating learning experiences such as outdoor classrooms and gardens to connect the headquarters with the park, and creating accessible entrances to the interior of the building while respecting the historic architecture of the pump house.

The structure housed two water pumps in a large interior room. We designed an object within the building–a freestanding core with programmed negative space between the object and the exterior walls. The core would house utility spaces–catering kitchens, gender neutral restrooms, and utility rooms, as well as acoustically-important spaces like private meeting rooms, phone booths and research nooks. The negative space was used for the main entry, community gathering spaces, open office floor, educational gallery and resource library.

While the non-profit ultimately found a different location for their headquarters, which we are currently working on with them (another historically significant building that we hope to share soon), we wanted to share our design for the station as a strategy to repurpose this important building. We believe in adaptive reuse as a sustainable practice, in creating a new contemporary interior while still preserving its history, and using the landmark as a connector and active participant in the overall context of Eden Park.

(Post 2/2)

Eden Park Station No. 7 is a historic structure located within Eden Park in Cincinnati, Ohio. Constructed in the late nineteenth century as a pump house to raise water from the Ohio River to the Eden Park Standpipe–the station was able to move 16 million gallons of water at the height of its use. As an important public work of Cincinnati architect Samuel Hannaford, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Working with a local non-profit organization that focuses on sustainability programming and education, we did an in-depth analysis of Station No. 7’s interior and the immediate exterior to repurpose it as a learning center and headquarters for the organization.

Our study looked at the site at a planning scale, connecting the building to existing paths and trails, parking studies to minimize the impact on historic Eden Park, locating learning experiences such as outdoor classrooms and gardens to connect the headquarters with the park, and creating accessible entrances to the interior of the building while respecting the historic architecture of the pump house.

The structure housed two water pumps in a large interior room. We designed an object within the building–a freestanding core with programmed negative space between the object and the exterior walls. The core would house utility spaces–catering kitchens, gender neutral restrooms, and utility rooms, as well as acoustically-important spaces like private meeting rooms, phone booths and research nooks. The negative space was used for the main entry, community gathering spaces, open office floor, educational gallery and resource library.

While the non-profit ultimately found a different location for their headquarters, which we are currently working on with them (another historically significant building that we hope to share soon), we wanted to share our design for the station as a strategy to repurpose this important building. We believe in adaptive reuse as a sustainable practice, in creating a new contemporary interior while still preserving its history, and using the landmark as a connector and active participant in the overall context of Eden Park.

Our project for 8 single family houses for the is currently under construction in Walnut Hills as phase one of their ARPA funding for affordable housing projects across the Cincinnati region. They are designed to optimize the narrow shotgun lots and play nicely with the surrounding context of the neighborhood.

Findlay Market is inherently messy, chaotic, and busy, with crowds walking the tight aisles, perusing goods and food for their week. Our work on the fishmongers stall for embraces the mess, while also bringing order and calm.

Reflecting our belief in working within our local network of resources and artists, the wood is all native box elder and hard maple from southern Ohio and Indiana.

The steel and wood surround for the coolers unify the ordering counter with the oyster counter to the left. The woven patterns from the handcrafted light shades by translate to a checkered base pattern along the wood slats that runs the length of the entire stall.

The handmade artisan quality of the millwork, leaning rail, signage and lighting reflect the quality of the sushi-grade fish and oysters that sen provides.

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Location: Cincinnati, OH

Throwback to 5 years ago, working with we designed and built birdhouses as part of their restoration efforts along the Mill Creek in Cincinnati. We developed design criteria and prototypes for new birdhouses inspired by at-risk species that were slowly coming back to the Mill Creek ecosystem due to ongoing habitat rehabilitation.

The Mill Creek is a 28-mile waterway traversing south through Butler and Hamilton counties to the Ohio River. In 1997, American Rivers, a national river conservation group, named the polluted Mill Creek as “the most endangered urban river in North America.” Today, these restoration efforts serve as a national model.

We were awarded the 2018 AIA Cincinnati Bettman Prize for this project

Swipe through for photos and process 👉

A cool, bright, open kitchen services the konbini and serves as a prep kitchen for the omakase bar. Simple and sanitary.

In contrast is the warm, dark, and intimate omakase seats. The bar is coated monthly with mineral oil allowing the natural tones of the hard maple to come out. Leather stools, concrete pendent lights, Japanese linen noren, and the charred yakisugi wall create a tactile environment, complimenting the dining experience.




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Precise details define Sen, a fishmonger’s stall completed in 2022 at historic Findlay Market. A wood shroud surrounds the seafood case structured off of a wireframe steel framework. Hand-painted signwork by .khosla.signs establishes presence in a busy market hall, projecting off the steel frame and wrapping a corner to emphasize the diagonal approach at the market intersection. At the bar, passersby throw back oysters on the half shell from a gnarled mollusc-like rail. Pictogram graphics introduce a playful backdrop for menu boards and wax paper for the food eaten at the standing bar. Hand woven lampshades by evoke traditional fisherman’s baskets. The woven motif in turn is transformed into the checkered pattern on the wood below.




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Signage: .khosla.signs
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On both sides of a shared kitchen, space is not defined by the shell walls of the extremely small footprint, but by a series of overlapping textures to create a sense of depth. In Daruma, rows of colorful products cover most of the wall area, giving way to warm wood shelves on clean white walls with generous natural lighting. In Roji, traditional noren give a soft feeling of enclosure around concrete point lights for each diner at the monolithic wood sushi bar, contrasted with a black yakisugi burnt-cedar backdrop, creating an intimate dining experience




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The interior of plays off the palette from the existing brick. Yellows, greens, whites and reds fleck the old brick interior, and are reinforced through the upholstery, painted walls and coffee bar. A continuous wainscoting datum line wrap the space in warm, maple hardwoods, contrasting the brick. Feeling both new and lived in, the interior is an inviting space for coffee, working, and conversation.

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In the front, facing the street: Daruma, a tiny grab-and-go Japanese convenience store serving lunch to downtown workers during the day. In the back, off the alley: Roji, an 8-seat high end omakase bar, open only at night. These two worlds rarely cross, yet share the built environment with each other. If Daruma engenders convenience, Roji’s day-of, reservation-only model defies it. Bright/dark, soft/firm, natural/processed, public/secret - opposites are amplified to create a unified whole, while maintaining their individual experiences.

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As spring is around the corner, posting this image from Hill House that we found looking through the archive. The Cincinnati skyline sits in the distance with a clear blue sky, teak handrail can also be seen through the nanowall dining room window.

Hill House won a CDA award (AIA - Building Architecture - Small scale) in 2021

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The espresso bar and merchandise shelving from the entrance at

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From the entry of . The banquette lines the east wall, existing brick above. The order bar faced with a pale green pebbledash is to the left of the space. Influenced by road-trips out west, the materials and textures remind us of the desert. 🏜️


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