PERSPECTIVES

The tobacco farm-aesthetic that diners can now experience at Southern Proper, the South End’s newest eatery, was designed by Boston-based RODE Architects.  Located on the ground floor of 600 Harrison Ave., RODE Architects developed its southern hospitality concept for the restaurant in tight collaboration with the food vision of Executive Chef and Owner Jason Cheek.

While having worked in the Boston architecture landscape for over 20 years, both Founder/Principals of RODE Architects have strong ties to the South; it was at NC State that the friends-turned-business-partners met and acquired their design degrees, making for the perfect partnership with Cheek, who drew from his North Carolina roots to bring “a taste of home” to Boston through the creation of Southern Proper.

The fully-integrated design approach of RODE’s interior group involved getting to know Cheek to fully understand his conceptual vision and operational needs. Many chefs have a very specific culinary inspiration for their food and craft, and through RODE’s rigorous design process they transform the culinary vision into the built environment, ensuring a thoughtful and well-executed dining experience.

To compliment Southern Proper’s authentic dishes and drinks, Cheek sought to outfit the restaurant with a unique environment. Jessica Haley, RODE’s lead interior designer, headed up this effort, developing a design concept that provides authentic, thoughtful nods to a southern home: relaxed, inviting and slightly eclectic. The design incorporates the feeling of a “down-home Sunday dinner,” a concept that inspired the centrally located oval bar. Additional elements, co-designed and fabricated with BHaley Designs, include seating options for large family-style tables, high tops and dining height tables. Custom designed tiered standing tables are positioned for casual eating and mingling. Further inspiration came from that of a traditional tobacco barn to create the ‘bones’ of the space where raw pine timbers crisscross overhead and rough sawn planks are back lit above the bar.

RODE incorporated traditional elements in a contemporary way throughout the space, for example creating a bar top made from a series of antique old dining room tables, and the hanging reclaimed table lamps upside down to make “old comfort” feel unexpected. The design also incorporates antique style wallpaper and light fixtures, green and gold accents, and smoke-infused, raw pine walls that allow natural light to seep in through the floor to high-vaulted ceiling spanning the perimeter.

"Southern Proper is paying homage to Jason’s roots, and he took great pains to deliver a traditional southern experience, so we wanted to ensure the atmosphere would reflect that vibe in the most authentic ways possible,” said Eric Robinson, principal and co-founder, RODE Architects.

The growth of RODE Architect’s interiors group echoes the broader demand for design expertise and services that bring the firm’s clients' visions to reality, such as the work achieved for notable spaces including Commonwealth Market and Restaurant, Coppersmith, Dot Brewery, La Brasa and SRV. RODE’s architectural and interior designers collaborate on a wide array of project types, from corporate to hospitality and mixed use. For more information visit www.rodearchitects.com.

Images by Sarah Storrer

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Island Exterior Fabricator's plant in Calverton NY consist of eight gigantic clear span structures formerly occupied by the United States Navy and Grumman Aircraft Engineering departments. Today, instead of turning out machines of war: engines, wings, and fuselages, the plant is busy assembling the buildings and cities of the 21st century.

A frenzy of activity greets visitors as they walk onto the cavernous fabrication floor: cranes lumbering overhead, buzz saws ripping through metal, the spark and smoke of welding permeating the air, the constant banging and clamoring about of industrial production.  However, within a few moments you realize there is a very methodical assembly line at work here. Carefully planned and executed under controlled, optimized conditions, pieces of buildings slowly make their way across the floor transformed from piles of raw materials to finished product ready for installation. Mistakes and waste are minimized and labor time is maximized making this method of building a rapidly growing approach in the construction world.

There are trade-offs: this project trajectory requires a large amount of up front coordination work, and the system is difficult to adjust once in the field. However, just as automation and manufacturing shaped the way consumers buy and use products, so too are they beginning to dramatically alter the way we shape the cities of tomorrow.

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Two of RODE's restaurant projects, Southern Proper and Buttonwood, have been featured in Boston.com's "New Restaurants Local Chefs Are Excited About."

Southern Proper features an open kitchen, swathed in reclaimed light pine wood, filled with personally curated tchotchkes, and contains lots of character-filled touches — like a bar-front wrapped in tin from an antique movie theater. Besides the vaulted ceiling, there are lots of large windows letting in plenty of sunlight for a bright, airy atmosphere.

At Buttonwood, in  the dining room, one wall is covered in wood paneling, the banquettes in dark blue pleather. Its gleaming wood floor gives way to black and white tiles on at the larger bar area. A miniature brass bust of Roosevelt sits atop the bar where people are encourage to eat and mingle.

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Southern Proper’s chef and proprietor Jason Cheek wants his restaurant to be a haven, a place where people can come after work and feel comfortable — a place where people can take a deep breath and relax.

“The best way I knew how to do that was to use a lot of raw woods and to incorporate a lot of plant life,” said Cheek, an alum of Toro and the defunct KO Prime. “Relaxation is about getting away from the metal and glass. Smell the pine, smell the flowers, smell the smoke in the air.”

The irony, of course, is that Southern Proper is housed in the Girard building (50 Malden St.), one of those new South End structures that’s not short on metal or glass. But cross the threshold from the concrete exterior and into Southern Proper, and that modern facade melts immediately away. Creating such a smooth transition wasn’t exactly easy, though.

“One of our biggest challenges was trying to dissolve the interior from the exterior,” said Cheek, who hired local firm RODE Architects to design the space. “The exterior is very modern and very Natick Mall. A lot of 90 degree angles, glass, and metal. It would have been easy to come in and make it look like a commercial restaurant. I didn’t want that. I wanted it to look like a tobacco barn. A tobacco barn my grandmother invaded.”

Southern Proper’s bar is built exclusively from the recycled wood of antique tabletops, and the tin that wraps around it was procured from an antiques dealer in Brimfield, Massachusetts, who sourced it from a turn-of-the-century movie theater in upstate New York. The lamps are all antique, and there is plenty of pine — much of which was sourced from North Carolina, Cheek’s home state.

Stay tuned for updates and opening details!

Original Article: https://boston.eater.com/2018/2/12/16995308/southern-proper-gallery

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Today the formwork, molds into which concrete or similar materials are poured, was removed from the first of seven monumental columns at the 6 West Broadway Hotel.    

These sculptural elements will have a large visual impact becoming a gateway to South Boston, and also define the outdoor space at the front of the hotel, on the corner of West Broadway and Dorchester Ave.

The process to design and craft these 26' and 36' tall columns had many steps and involved a great deal of consultant coordination.  The RODE team worked with structural engineers at McNamara Salvia to establish guidelines to meet structural requirements and inform the faceted design.  After many design iterations that utilized the computer program Rhino to shape the form, 3d printing to model the columns, and Revit to document the design, Consigli Construction built three mockups and the final reusable two-part fiberglass formwork to produce a smooth finish with crisp facets and elegant eased corners.

RODE is excited to share a sneak peek of these powerful elements before they're wrapped to protect them from construction activity until the hotel opens.