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Thursday, October 23, 2025
Denver pizza restaurant transformed into modular gallery by 11 x 17
www.dezeen.com: Architecture studio 11 x 17 had to leave historic details intact when converting a restaurant in a mixed-use building in Denver, Colorado, into a gallery space for the Architectural League of New York.
4 comments:
Mothman
said...
This project is hilarious to me. If you are an architecture design firm and you want to have a studio space or a gallery space to display your work, buy or rent a gallery space. Or be fun and playful with it and keep it in a pizza place. You don’t have to put up a bunch of white walls. This would be such a fun art gallery to just have an art gallery that acts totally normal but its just set up in a pizza shop. They didn’t change everything but still added the steel structure and the white walls and ceiling and paneling on the tables, it feels very odd to me. It feels very surreal and kind of reminds me of the show Severance a little bit. Just the structure of it. The weird vibe of how an office space could be normal and chill but is instead divisive and harsh cubicles that are just white.
While I think that this mix of industrial and “casual” decor is interesting I for one would have liked to see the gallery space stick to its roots as a pizza shop rather than adding so much industrial decor (steel beams, white panels). This art exhibition hall could have been built anywhere but this pizza restaurant was chosen for its history. Everywhere you look you find pure white art exhibition halls so it would have been interesting to see this one stick to its roots. New lighting as some new sectioning off of the space was of course necessary but the new parts stick out like a sore thumb from the old. I guess in part my dislike of this new look is due to growing tired of the industrial look everywhere you look. Sometimes it feels like we forget that paint comes in shades other than white, black, and grey when building structures. For many art exhibit halls the pure white look helps to keep the focus on the art rather than on the structure of the building itself. For this one, however, keeping more of the original feel of the decor might have given an interesting juxtaposition between the art exhibited and the existing decor of the space.
The concept of turning a pizza restaurant into a modular gallery space stood out because it blurs the line between social and creative environments. The designers clearly wanted a space that could adapt, with walls that open, furniture that moves, and lighting that changes to fit different moods. It feels less like a restaurant and more like a living installation that celebrates both food and design. The casual atmosphere of a pizza spot combined with the structure of an art gallery gives the place a dual identity that feels modern and intentional. It shows how design can build community without feeling forced or pretentious. The warmth of the restaurant side makes people feel comfortable while the rotating art adds energy and freshness every time someone walks in. It reminds me that creativity is not limited to museums or concert halls, sometimes it lives in the places where people eat, talk, and spend time together. That is what makes this idea work so well.
I was about to add this to my thanksgiving weekend itinerary until I saw the world seasonal. This is such a funny project, it really makes no sense and somehow worked out really well. I’ve noticed Denver doing a lot of funky experimental stuff like this lately and I love it. There’s a lot of cities with a lot of buildings that we don’t use, which I think would be a great place to put funky stuff like this. Of course, this was temporary so they did maintain the pizza restaurant integrity of the interior but if perhaps the pizza place was closing, this could be a great permanent space. I love the reuse and flexibility of so many modern spaces. I can’t help but think about the pizza smell this gallery probably has, I’m sure they thought of that… if I was at a gallery and I smelled pizza I think I’d be much more attuned to how the gallery is also a pizza restaurant, such a lovely yet weird gallery space.
4 comments:
This project is hilarious to me. If you are an architecture design firm and you want to have a studio space or a gallery space to display your work, buy or rent a gallery space. Or be fun and playful with it and keep it in a pizza place. You don’t have to put up a bunch of white walls. This would be such a fun art gallery to just have an art gallery that acts totally normal but its just set up in a pizza shop. They didn’t change everything but still added the steel structure and the white walls and ceiling and paneling on the tables, it feels very odd to me. It feels very surreal and kind of reminds me of the show Severance a little bit. Just the structure of it. The weird vibe of how an office space could be normal and chill but is instead divisive and harsh cubicles that are just white.
While I think that this mix of industrial and “casual” decor is interesting I for one would have liked to see the gallery space stick to its roots as a pizza shop rather than adding so much industrial decor (steel beams, white panels). This art exhibition hall could have been built anywhere but this pizza restaurant was chosen for its history. Everywhere you look you find pure white art exhibition halls so it would have been interesting to see this one stick to its roots. New lighting as some new sectioning off of the space was of course necessary but the new parts stick out like a sore thumb from the old. I guess in part my dislike of this new look is due to growing tired of the industrial look everywhere you look. Sometimes it feels like we forget that paint comes in shades other than white, black, and grey when building structures. For many art exhibit halls the pure white look helps to keep the focus on the art rather than on the structure of the building itself. For this one, however, keeping more of the original feel of the decor might have given an interesting juxtaposition between the art exhibited and the existing decor of the space.
The concept of turning a pizza restaurant into a modular gallery space stood out because it blurs the line between social and creative environments. The designers clearly wanted a space that could adapt, with walls that open, furniture that moves, and lighting that changes to fit different moods. It feels less like a restaurant and more like a living installation that celebrates both food and design. The casual atmosphere of a pizza spot combined with the structure of an art gallery gives the place a dual identity that feels modern and intentional. It shows how design can build community without feeling forced or pretentious. The warmth of the restaurant side makes people feel comfortable while the rotating art adds energy and freshness every time someone walks in. It reminds me that creativity is not limited to museums or concert halls, sometimes it lives in the places where people eat, talk, and spend time together. That is what makes this idea work so well.
I was about to add this to my thanksgiving weekend itinerary until I saw the world seasonal. This is such a funny project, it really makes no sense and somehow worked out really well. I’ve noticed Denver doing a lot of funky experimental stuff like this lately and I love it. There’s a lot of cities with a lot of buildings that we don’t use, which I think would be a great place to put funky stuff like this. Of course, this was temporary so they did maintain the pizza restaurant integrity of the interior but if perhaps the pizza place was closing, this could be a great permanent space. I love the reuse and flexibility of so many modern spaces. I can’t help but think about the pizza smell this gallery probably has, I’m sure they thought of that… if I was at a gallery and I smelled pizza I think I’d be much more attuned to how the gallery is also a pizza restaurant, such a lovely yet weird gallery space.
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