People in Bristow Village have a new amenity to look forward to. As progress continues, this welcoming space will feature a two-story roof with a terrace, elegant arches, and awnings for visual interest. We will share more project details as we are able!
Another successful repurposing project turns a former specialty school into the hottest spot in Haymarket to spend Taco Tuesday.
After designing the space for the Haymarket location of Zandra’s Taqueria, we gave the Manassas location a complete interior make over and rebuild to emulate what we did in Haymarket. We also relocated the entry doors off of the street and into the alley with exterior and interior stairs leading to a rooftop bar.
Battle Street Bistro in Manassas, VA is the second restaurant concept from Sarah and David Devight, owners of the Secret Garden Cafe in Occoquan, VA. Our experience with restaurant design, converting space for new uses, and local historic preservation regulations made Loveless Porter Architects a perfect fit for designing this retrofit and managing construction. 9402 Battle Street began as a law practice in 1950. The Devights had a clear vision for transforming the outdated offices into a cozy, French cafe-inspired eatery, complete with the city’s first rooftop dining area. This required a structural redesign of the existing roof, a drainable paver system, and an attractive steel railing to keep diners safe while keeping the cafe vibe. Our design work also included plans for replacing the metal front door with a more inviting wooden door and removing some brick to allow for more windows. Additionally, we opened up the small space to maximize the occupancy load.
Work continues on Route 7 Brewing in Asburn, VA. Loveless Porter is designing the interior tenant layout and managing construction of this 5,000 square foot building in the Lexington 7 Project. As with most brewery development, this Loudoun County project is multifaceted and calls for the architect to seamlessly blend uses: In addition to the unique utility and safety considerations that go into brewery design, Loveless Porter worked with the client to visually and physically connect the indoor areas — featuring a brewery, taproom, restaurant, and entertainment space — to the large patio. The owners of Route 7 Brewing plan to offer a variety of live performances, such as bands and open mic poetry, along with a DJ booth and dance floor.
The owners of Palace Plaza in Annandale, Virginia tasked Loveless Porter Architects with transforming the former site of a 10,000 sf restaurant into two smaller spaces for new food service tenants. Our design included new entry canopies and a front facade that gave the once brick-behometh a more approachable and modern feel.
Our latest restaurant design project is a bit of a phoenix, with a sleek dining room and bar rising from a long-vacant office suite in Alexandria, Virginia. MacMillan Spirit House is the second restaurant venture for Derek Andersen and Emma Hand, who also own The MacMillan Whisky Room in the Mosaic District. At 3,800 SF, the space includes a covered patio area built for all-weather comfort and is more than twice as large as the couple’s Fairfax-based eatery. This larger footprint will accommodate more customers and allow for more food and beverage offerings. The addition of MacMillan Spirit House to 500 Montgomery is part of an effort to transform this 1900s-era office building into a mixed-use property activated by community-serving commercial and cultural uses. This type of conversion is not without its share of architectural challenges Reimagining a first-floor office—with low ceilings and base building systems (HVAC and other mechanical components)—into a full-service restaurant and tasting bar requires some creativity and a deep understanding of bar and restaurant design principles. Our architectural renderings reconfigured large spaces into smaller, intimate social areas using texture, color, and lighting. Luckily, a whiskey bar lends itself to darker finishes, such as rich wood paneling, that can mask pre-existing elements that might otherwise be out of character for this use. We strategically left exposed utility lines and hanging pendant light fixtures that shield the ceiling plane and add a sense of height. Details such as these create a unique experience in each area of the establishment.