Designwire Daily: from the editors of Interior Design magazine

LAX’s Terminal Four Turns Tasty

by Nicholas Tamarin | Tuesday, July 12, 2011 | 1 Comment

Airport food—the phrase itself conjures up images of plastic gloves and bland sandwiches with questionable expiration dates. It’s this notion that HMS Host hopes to counteract with an innovative new dining area at the Los Angeles International Airport.

The airport-concession operator has enlisted the Amsterdam-based design consultancy UXUS to turn LAX’s Terminal 4 into a trend-setting food court, inspired by New York’s Grand Central Market, that will be a microcosm of the L.A. food scene, with outposts from French to Korean, burgers to vegan.

Already named Angeleno’s Market, the court will be laid out so that visitors strolling through the terminal will encounter a series of different concessions, ranging from West L.A.’s La Provence Patisserie and Café, the Miracle Mile’s famed Campanile restaurant, West Hollywood’s organic Real Food Daily and 8oz Burger Bar, and downtown’s legendary bar The Varnish at Cole’s.

UXUS co-owner and creative director George Gottl says, “The design language will capture LA’s extraordinary cosmopolitan mix, with a strong focus on sustainable materials and lighting, rich, human textures and bold statements that combine to create a unique sense of place.”  That will include contrasting recycled aluminum surfaces, reclaimed lumber, pressed tin and weathered leather banquettes. Accents will include black and white ceramic mosaic flooring, subway wall tiles and vintage lighting set against an “outdoor” seating patio with a tall exposed ceiling and LED festoon lamps.

Meanwhile, the Real Food Daily vegan seating area  will be buffered from the other venues through wooden pantry-style open shelf partitions, displaying jarred dry goods, sleek white pendant lamps and pastel-hued large-format contemporary canvases.

Images courtesy of UXUS.