Design and Innovation News

LA-based Jared Frank Studio has looked to Milan's history of modernist design for references while focusing on "what a West Coast pizza parlour could be". Occupying a single-storey building with a fully glazed front in Highland Park, north of Downtown LA, Wildcrust has contrasting colours and materials in reference to Italy's design greats. When designing the interiors, Jared Frank Studio used the opportunity to rethink the pizzeria typology and move away from the aesthetic typically found in the Northeast US.

Modernist Melding

• Wildcrust, a new pizzeria in Highland Park, north of Downtown LA, moves away from the traditional Northeast US pizzeria aesthetic
• Jared Frank Studio draws inspiration from Milan’s design history, including figures like Piero Portaluppi and Aldo Rossi
• Pistachio green is prominently featured, including on wall-mounted cabinets, sliding fronts beneath the service counter, and a linear light
• Burgundy and red hues are used for a backsplash of tiny tiles and leather-covered banquette seating

"Chef Miles Okabayashi engaged Jared Frank not just to design a restaurant, but to develop an original vision for what a West Coast pizza parlour could be," said the studio. "Instead of trafficking in Tri-State nostalgia, Frank looked towards the long history of Milanese modernism, from Piero Portaluppi's Deco to Aldo Rossi's PoMo and everything in between."

With the greats of Italian design in mind, the designer imbued the space with contrasting colours and materials, and a variety of decorative lighting fixtures. Pistachio green was chosen for wall-mounted cabinets, the sliding fronts below the stainless steel service counter and a linear light suspended above it.

A backsplash of tiny red and burgundy tiles echoes the claret-coloured leather used to cover banquette seating, which wraps around circular tables. A band of wraparound mirrors above the banquettes is topped with a zigzag trim where the pistachio hue appears again. Additional seating is provided at a picnic table and benches, all with A-shaped metal supports, and a small counter at the window.

Speckled black and white tiles cover the floor and extend part of the way up the wall, above which the exposed brickwork is whitewashed. For lighting, sconces shaped like inverted stepped pyramids are mounted on the walls, while pendant lights comprising stacked disks match the leather upholstery.

"With Wildcrust, Frank argues that it is LA, not New York, that has inherited Italy's exuberantly playful relationship to modern life and food," said the studio. This is Frank's first hospitality project since Tenants of the Trees, a popular LA nightclub during the late 2010s.

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