Willmott’s Ghost, the recently opened restaurant occupying the ground floor of The Spheres on Amazon’s campus in Seattle, evokes different images simultaneously.
The 1,900-sf, 50-seat restaurant was named after a thistle-like flower christened in honor of the Victorian horticulturalist Ellen Ann Willmott. The restaurant’s cuisine leans Italian, and its color scheme has been said to resemble a Margherita pizza. One review described its modernist design, enclosed as it is inside a spherical envelope, as being like an aquarium. Heliotrope Architects, the restaurant’s architect, has called the project “a ship in a bottle.”
The restaurant, which opened last October, is one of only three spaces in The Spheres open to the public. Its chef, Renee Erickson, is a regional star whose rapidly expanding food and beverage portfolio includes Deep Dive, a bar in The Sphere’s basement. (Her Sea Creatures restaurant group is the exclusive food operator of both venues.)
Willmott’s Ghost is in line with Erickson’s typically upscale, light-filled style, “with white marble accents yet filtered through a futuristic lens,” according to The Seattle Times’ review of the restaurant last month.
The 1,900-sf restaurant seats around 50 people, and its interior design was dictated by the curved space of the building. Image: Heliotrope Architects
Amazon Spheres, which opened 14 months ago, consists of three intersecting glass domes that serve as lounges and workplaces for Amazon’s employees. The domes also house more than 40,000 plants from 50 countries.
The restaurant’s design team—which included the interior design firm Price Erickson and the general contractor Dovetail—drew its inspiration from the NBBJ-designed Spheres’ geometry, as well as the airy environments of art museums and galleries.
Enclosed within the domes’ envelope, much of the architecture for the restaurant was dictated by curves: Curved leather banquettes and booths hug the glass perimeter. Curved walls clad in painted wood pickets, inspired by the knurling on the sides of coins, define the dining room. Curved bars with Italian marble countertops fill the space.
The restaurant's pastel palette and modernist design are in stark contrast to the forest of trees and plants above it. Image: Kevin Scott
“We made craft the main ingredient of the restaurant buildout,” explains Jeremy Price, a Principal with Price Erickson. That buildout was complicated by the curved nature of the building and a sophisticated mechanical system that runs The Spheres’ complex and keeps alive the plants and trees that form a three-story botanical garden above the restaurant.
The restaurant’s pastel-colored interior palette favors whites, pinks, mints, and forest greens. For example, pink Moroccan tiles are a custom color from Ann Sacks, a specialty supplier. Brass light fixtures illuminate original artwork by Ellen Lesperance. Above the tables hang crescent pendant lights by Lee Broom.
Related Stories
| Oct 30, 2014
Perkins Eastman and Lee, Burkhart, Liu to merge practices
The merger will significantly build upon the established practices—particularly healthcare—of both firms and diversify their combined expertise, particularly on the West Coast.
| Oct 29, 2014
Better guidance for appraising green buildings is steadily emerging
The Appraisal Foundation is striving to improve appraisers’ understanding of green valuation.
| Oct 29, 2014
Increasing number of design projects meeting carbon reduction targets, says AIA report
Of the 2,464 projects accounted for in AIA's 2030 Commitment 2013 Progress Report, 401 are meeting the 60% carbon reduction target—a 200% increase from 2012.
Sponsored | | Oct 29, 2014
What’s the difference between your building’s coating chalking and fading?
While the reasons for chalk and fade are different, both occurrences are something to watch for. SPONSORED CONTENT
Sponsored | | Oct 29, 2014
Historic Washington elementary school incorporates modular design
More and more architects and designers are leveraging modern modular building techniques for expansion projects planned on historical sites. SPONSORED CONTENT
| Oct 29, 2014
Diller Scofidio + Renfro selected to design Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs
The museum is slated for an early 2018 completion, and will include a hall of fame, theater, retail space, and a 20,000-sf hall that will showcase the history of the Olympics and Paralympics.
Smart Buildings | Oct 29, 2014
SCAPE’s 'living breakwaters' resiliency development wins 2014 Buckminster Fuller Challenge
New York-based landscape architecture firm SCAPE won the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s 2014 Fuller Challenge, billed as socially responsible design’s highest award.
| Oct 28, 2014
4 keys to mastering 'design thinking' and the iteration process
When using design thinking and iteration, we’ll sometimes spend multiple days iterating idea after idea, heads down, only to realize we still don’t have it right, writes HDR's Amy Lussetto. She offers tips for success with these idea-nurturing tools.
| Oct 28, 2014
Miami accepts more modest plan to renovate its convention center
The city of Miami has awarded an $11 million contract for its on-again, off-again convention center renovation to Denver-based Fentress Architects, which will serve as the design criteria professional on this project.
| Oct 28, 2014
Kean University creates Michael Graves School of Architecture
Winner of the AIA Gold Medal, the National Medal of the Arts, the Topaz Medallion and the Driehaus Prize for Architecture, Graves is best known for his contemporary building designs and prominent public commissions.
