Warren Ashworth is a licensed architect practicing in New York since 1980. His specialty is hospitality design with an emphasis on restaurants. He has always engaged in residential design, as well, and feels that the very private aspects of that work continue to inform the very public aspects of restaurant design. Warren has been retired from practice since 2020.
Perennial Restaurant
Chicago, Illinois
The design of this award-winning restaurant takes advantage of the large amount of natural light from its corner location. Birch tree trunks from the Michigan woods feature as the restaurant’s sentinel axis. These are lit from above in the daytime and from below in the evening. The interior designer here was Randi Halpern.
One Mile House Bar
New York, New York
Antique convex mirrors along the curving wall of this dramatic downtown bar accentuate its theme of spheres and illusions. Through a unique arrangement the double bar creates an optical illusion that seems to place a mirror where none exists. The interior designer here was Christina Ziegler.
Screened Porch
Stone Ridge, New York
The structure of this porch is a 14’ x 14’ x 14’ timber frame that was carved by my wife and me without any power tools, using among other things, a hand-cranked nineteenth-century boring machine. The original frame was made for our son’s wedding chuppah and afterwards disassembled and stored for many years. The 8 x 8 timbers with their mortise and tenon joints were resurrected to become a screen porch on our house.