Shedding A Light on Saison

BY STEFANIE SCHWALB

ALL PHOTOS BY ZACK BENSON

How Studio UNTLD Illuminated the Vibrant Fresno-based Restaurant

“Napa Valley meets Mexico City” is how the Fresno-based Saizon restaurant bills itself. Serving contemporary American cuisine that features Mexican influences with a unique Cali point of view, Saizon’s range of flavorful food is matched only by its energetic surroundings—the design of which is equally enticing. That design hails from Los Angeles–based STUDIO UNLTD. The award-winning hospitality design firm specializes in interior architecture, furniture, and lighting, and the team is adept at cohesively bringing all three together with impressive results. We connected with Becky Becheanu, Studio UNLTD’s Lighting Designer, to get insights on how they achieved that goal with this particular project.

“The overall design of Saizon leans very architectural with faux columns and beams inspired by the dilapidated concrete structure beneath an old ocean pier being used to create an internal framework,” Becheanu explains. “The finish selections and design details of the space focus on handmade textures and geometric shapes—like the blue Zellige tile of the bar face and the black plastered ‘icons’ at the interior and exterior walls of the private dining room.” Of course, lighting plays an important part in highlighting both the steadfastness of the architecture as well as the textural moments, the designer adds. “Architectural lighting is used to highlight the custom rust-effect artwork on the soffit that wraps behind the bar and around the corner above the open kitchen. Accent lighting along the walls flanking the bar and open kitchen highlight colorful murals, making their vibrancy pop.”

The fixtures used to achieve the design scheme shift depending on what area of the restaurant they were focused on, to ensure each scene set the ideal mood. For example, Becheanu notes that large custom-hammered copper pendants from Cu29 foster a more intimate dining experience in the private dining room with the copper material creating an extra warmth as it reflects the light inside. Meanwhile, custom double-armed fixtures by Paul Paige mounted along the spine wall of the double-sided dining banquette feature handmade ceramic shades with leather wrapped detailing at the vertical steel supports. “These fixtures were inspired by lamp posts,” she says, “that might be seen along a pedestrian pier.” Serving as distinct pieces of art within the restrooms and the adjacent corridor were custom-shaped LED neon fixtures from Luminii. “Their shapes use the same geometries employed at the black ‘icon’ walls of the private dining room.” Additionally, Lunar pendants from Virginia Sin add a pop of warm terracotta at the vanities in the otherwise darkly colored restrooms. Above the bar lounge area, large Wireflow chandeliers from Vibia were selected to reinforce the architectural, geometric feel of the space, and Grain Drum pendants from Brendan Ravenhill create a more intimate, warm light at the round dining booths in the bar area. To soften the concrete-textured perimeter walls of the main dining room, Wood Eclipse sconces from Allied Maker were installed, and then on the patio outside, Jaima pendants from Marset add a focal point above the round booths found there.

Of course, the role of lighting and choice of fixtures played into the project’s overall design approach as an important part in the process. “As a primarily evening dining establishment, the lighting of Saizon needed to be ‘sexy,’ capable of low dimming and a softness conducive to the dinner experience,” Becheanu reveals. “To this end, we desired architectural light fixtures with great low-end dimming and more focused beam spreads to illuminate table surfaces and highlight specific moments and features in the space as a way to help tell the overall design story.” And lighting choices go hand-inhand with overall interior design choices, she adds, so that they are supporting and bolstering one another.

In terms of what Becheanu and the team were looking to for inspiration in design and lighting for Saizon, the designer says that “they were inspired by the meeting between nature and manmade structure that occurs at an ocean pier, and the tension this meeting creates between permanence and fluidity.” Additionally, the client envisioned incorporating graffiti-inspired art in the space, she adds, which informed the style and direction of the colorful murals that captivate guests’ eyes upon entry. “Much of our inspiration for Saizon came from the desire to explore a range of tactility in surfaces and finishes (emphasized with lighting),” Becheanu concludes, “in order to create a richness of depth that could support a variety of dining experiences and rhythms throughout the room.”