Sunny Side Up

At Callie in San Diego, Studio UNLTD Designed Lighting to Pair Seamlessly with the Restaurant’s SoCal Design Scheme

By Stef Schwalb

Nicknamed “America’s Finest City”, San Diego is known for its amazing weather, beaches, local attractions and, of course, its enticing dining scene. At Callie, located downtown on Island Avenue and designed by architect Mark Bausback of Baus Arch, the cuisine from chef/ owner Travis Swikard is Mediterranean-inspired, and the restaurant’s contemporary interiors are radiant, warm, sophisticated, and delectably in sync with the overall vibe. A large part of this is due to lighting, so we caught up with Becky Becheanu, Lighting Designer for Los Angeles–based, award-winning Studio UNLTD, for insights on the project and what it entailed, starting with how the general design aesthetic—plus Callie’s location—influenced the team’s choices, from the eclectic bar lounge to the space’s overall “Golden Hour” ambiance.

In the dining area, meandering seating has a relaxed, coastal feel, replete with plant life, marine blue chairs and rust colored booths.

Photograph by Lucianna McIntosh

“Focusing on the major design feature of the space (the wave of the bar ceiling), the lighting design for Callie sought to seamlessly integrate with the architecture—to highlight the golden yellow of the ceiling and emphasize its arched form with soft but dramatic uplighting,” explains Becheanu. “We created a wave of warm light that starts at the back bar, washing up from the bar shelves, uplighting the liquor display, cascading up onto the ceiling, and peeking out with a discreet line of light that emerges at the top of the wave where it meets the horizontal plane above. The warmth of the ceiling is echoed in the amber Marset ‘Dipping Lights’ mounted at the bar top, providing an intimate dining experience for those at the bar. Under-bar lighting that brings out the texture of the corten steel bar face is mirrored at the expo kitchen, where a soft glow uplights the corten hood cladding.” And with Callie’s robust wine program, Becheanu adds, the wine room served as a second important feature in the restaurant. Clad in glass with dramatic accent lighting, the displayed wine becomes a beacon of light within the dining space.

A blend of denim-blue decorative tiles adorn the columns in the dining room

Photograph by Lucianna McIntosh

View of bar from entry.

Photograph by Lucianna McIntosh

Speaking of dramatic lighting, the choices of fixtures played a large part in the design approach, and while they weren’t custom pieces, they are from renowned lighting designers and helped define the environment. “While we didn’t create any custom light fixtures for this particular project, we always seek to source unique pieces that work well with the overall design aesthetic and bolster a dialogue with the architecture and finishes of the space,” notes Becheanu. “For instance, Lozi’s ‘Sunset Lamp’ provided the perfect setting-sun effect, suspended at the end of the bar wave. Made from a translucent wood veneer that plays off of the arched glu-lam beams of the ceiling, it echoes the warm glow of the uplit wave and bar-top lamps below. The wood bead chandeliers by Regina Andrew, coupled with the eclectic plush furniture, inlaid carpet, and artwork like ‘The Dude,’ help foster a relaxed, SoCal coastal vibe in the lounge area of the bar. Kjartan Oskarsson Studio’s ‘Halo Lamp’ brings the sunset from the bar into the PDR.”

View from the end of the bar.

Photograph by Lucianna McIntosh

As with this project (and many others), the team at Studio UNLTD always takes the role of lighting as a critical part of the process within its design approach. “Our goal in every project is to make every lighting choice feel intentional and integral to the overall design of the space. Interior design and lighting design walk hand-in-hand—it’s a constant conversation between the two, where they each inform and push the other,” says Becheanu. “Lighting helps tell the design story and is a critical tool for emphasizing and highlighting the unique details and design decisions we make. Lighting helps set the entire mood for a restaurant; it can make or break the dining experience. Used for both creating an ambiance and putting focus on the food itself, lighting is a key element in our design approach.”

Creating layers of light—a mix of general, accent, and decorative lighting—adds a richness of depth and dimension to the team’s designs, notes Becheanu, and in selecting particular light fixtures (whether decorative or architectural), they look for products that not only fit aesthetically with a project but also offer the performance and quality needed for creating the most amazing dining experience possible. “An otherwise great meal can so easily be hampered by a flickering light or bad glare from an unshielded fixture,” she adds.

Hanging above the kitchen’s pass counter, the exhaust hood is clad in a v-shape of corten steel.

Photograph by Lucianna McIntosh

With such a distinct focus on creativity in their projects, we had to wonder what Becheanu and Studio UNLTD look to for inspiration, and if there are any current trends they are seeing right now that are impacting their work. “Lighting inspiration can come from a multitude of sources, often unexpected and organic in nature. It can be as simple as noticing the way daylight from a window is reflecting off a surface and projecting a pattern of light across the wall. It can manifest while walking a nearby trail and remarking the way the trees filter light and create a dappled effect along the ground. Even the changing hue of daylight throughout the day has informed the overall lighting design of one of our projects,” says Becheanu.

“We also turn to artists—both past and present—for inspiration. While they represent a relatively small subset of the art world, light artists have the particularly unique gift of challenging the limits of lighting technology,” she added. They both question and redefine the team’s relationship to light (personally, culturally, psychologically), and sometimes they need to step away from the limits of building and energy codes to explore a more unhindered conversation with light. “More and more, we see a move towards the disappearance of the light fixture in a space. Because of the overwhelming prevalence and advances in LED technology, fixtures are getting smaller and smaller and becoming more discreet, hidden elements in design,” Becheanu concludes. “We’re also seeing greater client demand for changeability and flexibility over time—whether it be in tunable white and color-changing fixtures or easily reconfigurable products like magnetic-based tracks, there’s definitely been a push for increased dynamic capabilities in our work.” ■