Project Review: Cafe Morpheus Asylum-PART IV

A side view from a big booth showing the Bar to the left, the big opposite widow [ Shh no secrets here**], and the railings to the Mezzanine.

The Counter Bar in the center of the Main Room at Cafe Morpheus with a view to the kitchen.

The revised ironwork for the staircase.[ If you watch Point of No Return] this is the staircase that B. Fonda jumps down after her first kill, that was the room we modified.

The main big windows for each side with internal lighting.

All Lamps that were handmade for the Main dining hall area.

Cafe Morpheus Asylum Restaurant

PART IV

Client: John R. Thomas.
Art Director: John R. Thomas.
Project Date: Summer 1993.

In this fourth posting for the restaurant and lounge, Cafe Morpheus-Asylum I illustrated for John R. Thomas in Beverly Hills CA. back in the very early 90's, I focus in this post on the blueprint Designs for the custom curved main dining hall.

The room had a barrel roof originally as it was a Lodge from the 20's and we converted the room to be in the Art Nouveau style of Antoni Gaudi. The rooms ceiling formed a Parabolic Audio effect where you could ***hear whispers across the room as they bounced inside the fully curved surfaces. You can also see this room in the film "Swimming with Sharks" starring Kevin Spacey.

You can also see the bent copper tube lamps I designed from my prior posting on the walls, posts and the big fan/chandeliers in the main image.

You will notice the grid work over the complex curved surfaces, this was a guild for the builders to make these shapes. I also made huge 6-9 foot long french curves for the construction crew to get the shapes right base on these.

.You can view PART I here,

..and PART II here.

...and PART III here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Cafe Morpheus Asylum-PART III

The big "Blade Runner" ceiling fan for the upstairs area.

The Custom made Bar Stools for the dining counter in the large dining hall.

These Lamps had 12 separate lights with a ceiling fan and were near 16 feet tall.

The smaller Post mount and Wall Sconce versions of the lights that were made for the main hall and bath areas.

The Frank Lloyd Wright inspired Lamps that were handmade for the Mezzanine area.

Cafe Morpheus Asylum Restaurant

PART III

Client: John R. Thomas.
Art Director: John R. Thomas.
Project Date: Summer 1993.

In this third posting for Cafe Morpheus Asylum the Restaurant I illustrated for John R. Thomas in Beverly Hills CA. back in the very early 90's, I focus in this post on the blueprint Designs for the custom made ceiling fans, lighting, and bar stools that were all made entirely from scratch.

The first drawing is for the huge 8 foot ceiling fan ala "Blade Runner" with a roof lighting system so faux moonlight would stream into the smoke filled Mezzanine with the slow rotation of the giant industrial fan. The fan itself, we found it in a junkyard, a vintage fan that weighed about 600 pounds so we cast the parts from plastic and faux finished them as the weight was a liability to use the original.

The second drawing breakdown is for the custom post mount bar stools that used a VW deck-Lid sprint to give some nice "steampunk" Industrial feeling to the seats as well as function to give a bit of spring to the backs.

The bent tube lamps were all build out of solid copper and brass parts and finished with a great patina aging them to look like the originals from 100 years back.

I also designed two Frank Lloyd Wright styled lamps for the upstairs "Blade Runner" room area as well. One was a direct lift from a table lamp from his Prairie collection, and the other was a unique design with a parallelogram hinge system so the lamp could move up and down via the wall mount and remain level at all times. This one was build from Aluminum and steel and anodized with an art glass shade as well.

Cheers, THOM

You can view PART I here, and PART II here.

Project Review: Cafe Morpheus-Asylum-Part II

The Tile Roofed Entryway into Cafe Morpheus.

To the Right of the Entry was the Pastry Shop, also finished in tile.

Post details, and wainscoting lighting.

Cafe Morpheus Asylum Restaurant
PART II

Client: John R. Thomas.
Art Director: John R. Thomas.
Project Date: Summer 1993.

In this second posting for Cafe Morpheus, I focus in the blueprint Designs the Foyer entryway into Cafe Morpheus. Styled after Victor Horta's, "Horta House", in Europe we used subway tile on a curved rood to give the feel of tunnels in the subway. It has brass detailing for the edging with light up wainscoting with hidden lighting for walkways etc.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Cafe Morpheus-Asylum Part I

Front cover with Logo hand drawn by Dan Hanrahan.

Entrance Facade's both front and side for The Asylum.

Contour Drawing for the Top of the Front facade over the doorway.

Internal Structure Drawing for the Top Facade Piece.

CAFE MORPHEUS
ASYLUM PART I

Client John R. Thomas.
Art Director: John R. Thomas.
Project Date: Fall 1992.

Early on in my career I worked through Phillip Mittel at Motion Artists and he connected me with John R. Thomas for the redesign of the Asylum restaurant into two distinct clubs. The front club would be renamed to Cafe Morpheus and would be an amalgamation of three to four architectural influences , but mainly Art Nouveau. The rear bar would remain Asylum, but would get revised and expanded with a better facade entrance to go along with it.

What you see above are the first four pages of the complete design package I Illustrated and helped John with to get the restaurant built. John is a creative genius and it was a great time and a fun project to work on for almost 6 months straight. This is the first in a series showcasing various areas of design.

Cheers, THOM