Morimoto Restaurant

LERA was the structural engineer for a tenant renovation for a 13,000-sf (1,200-sm) upscale restaurant located on two levels in Manhattan’s Chelsea Market. The facility is punctuated by remnants of the High Line elevated railway, referencing the site’s prior use as a food manufacturing center. Architecturally exposed concrete, a signature element of Tadao Ando’s work, is dramatically visible in a series of concrete columns and a floating stair. The space is further defined by a static “waterwall,” a steel curtain holding nearly 20,000 illuminated bottles of water.