PROJECT: THE UNION BAR + RESTAURANT
CLIENT: The Cascade Group
Completed: 2012
Floor area: 2,200 sf
Occupant load: 90
The Union is a Southeast Asian inspired restaurant & cocktail lounge. The modern industrial space utilizes dark woods, reclaimed barn board, exposed concrete walls and floors, large-scale pendants, custom wood tables and benches, and neighbourhood imagery, creating a contemporary and inclusive room organized around the bar and kitchen.The bar is highlighted by four backlit storage cabinets featuring details of grittier aspects of the neighbourhood.
The open kitchen is wrapped in an installation of reclaimed barn board, inspired by the locale. The lyrics to “Crosstown Traffic” reference the young Jimi Hendrix who spent summer holidays next door with his grandmother, as well as the Georgia Street viaduct which was constructed in the early 1970’s as part of an extensive freeway system which was to flow traffic “crosstown” from the suburbs. The lyrics have been broken apart and reassembled to represent the fracturing of the neighbourhood caused by the viaduct, which went directly through the predominantly black community of Hogan’s Alley.
Photography: © Janis Nicolay Photography
