The Story
The Dynasty Room, a local favorite watering hole, was the name for the cocktail lounge inside the Four Seas Restaurant in the International District of Seattle. In the fall of 2017 it closed to make way of new development. A seven-story building would be erected in its place and the restaurant and bar would be demolished, but the schedule was not finalized. Our client, I-Miun Liu remembered going there as a kid and hated the idea of the place being forgotten. He approached the developers with the prospect of a creating a temporary bar rather than letting the space sit empty. He approached the project with the same passion and enthusiasm as one would if the restaurant wasn’t going to be torn down in a short couple of years.
He’s also a good business man, so he asked us to work with a tight budget to create some magic. He wanted the bar to seamlessly blend into the community, but at the same time he wanted to modernize it. First, we closed off the restaurant portion and focused solely on the bar area. In the entry sequence we created a design feature, working alongside artists from Electric Coffin, discovering opportunities to incorporate art. One of the boldest elements of the design, which is completely in line with the International District’s DNA, is the bight red color on the walls and entry screens. When you take a seat in the bar itself you get a sense of nostalgia and the ambiance of the space back in the day. Everyone involved dug deep into our creativity to deliver this project and it ended up winning Best Bar in Seattle, 2018.
Project designed and completed while Ryan and Matthew were Associates at Board & Vellum.
Design Team: Ryan Adanalian, Katie Mallory, Electric Coffin
Photographer: Austin Lane Day
Location: Seattle, WA
Environment
Climate Zone:
4C, Marine
Ecoregion (EPA):
2f Central Puget Lowland
