Bon Delire: Millwork
Bon Delire is a new and refreshing take on a french bistro on San Francisco's Embarcadero. We, at Model No., were responsible for designing the millwork spec for manufacturing and then fabricating all parts and pieces. Personally, I was responsible for the design for manufacturing process and implementing efficient production process. Due to changes in staffing during the build process and tight timelines, I was required to also be responsible for a large part of the fabrication and installation of the millwork package.
Architect: Studio Terpeluk
Restauranteur: Kais Bouzidi
Bar Niche: Design, Fabrication & Install
The design and build process for the millwork package at Bon Delire was challenging to say the least. Being a furniture company, we had to get up to speed quickly in order to understand and execute the problem sets presented to us by the architects. Our small team was able to come together and use each others prior knowledge to create viable solutions for the tall order of designing and fabricating all the elements of the bar.
The most complex elements were the bar niches that surround the exterior of the bar. When the design was first pitched to us there was really no plan for how these could be made. The responsibility of figuring out that problem was squarely on my shoulders. I implemented a plan to create each niche out of solid wood, as veneer would be incredibly complex and out of our scope. Each niche has a layer cake construction of fourteen layers that were individually milled on the CNC and indexed together in one giant glue up. After the glue up and sanding process, each niche section had a one inch vertical glue surface so that they could be married together when finally assembled and the entire bar face would come together in one flush surface.
The result of this painstaking fabrication process was incredible and I'm extremely proud of this project. Each seam between the niches was tight and flush from top to bottom and fit perfectly around the existing die-wall with 3/8ths of an inch gap between the existing structure and the back of the niches. This is all a result of diligent measuring and precision machining and woodwork.
Casework and Finshes
The casework was the largest part of this millwork package for Bon Delire. It was much more conventional in construction, which helped speed things up during the design process. The CNC machines we have in our shop were vital for the entire process of this job, but especially shined when milling out all the parts for this cabinetry. We were able to make frames and carcasses for the wall and cabinet elements very quickly and accurately.
