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BCS | Architects and Builders

Social Media is changing the way we design restaurants

Jean Paul Rocafort • Jul 31, 2018

For years now, Instagram has set the bar for trends in food and entertainment industry. From colorful Cereal Bars like PALS Companyto Birthday Pancakes from Tía Cocina, their food, their plating and overall space are often designed with Instagram in mind, branding experts and entrepreneurs are responsible for popular treats like the Tía Cocina and Sugar Factory milkshake often see lines around the block after images of their products go viral. Firms like BCS Architect s and Builders specialize in just that, turning restaurants into INSTAGRAM BAIT by designing not only the space and how you feel inside of it but also the photo-op moments to make your brand go viral.

Instagram’s parent-company Facebook announced it made $9.1 billion in earnings this quarter on advertising, retaining its longstanding rule over digital advertising alongside with Google’s Alphabet ($26 billion). With Instagram absorbing competitor Snapchat’s story features and increasing the number of sponsored posts it shows this year, it’s not a stretch to say that the social media giant sits at the center of food and beverage trends. But what happens to interior spaces when restaurants set out to be “Instagrammable”?

When the older generation of restaurants were designed as visual experiences, they generally came across as kitsch: think of the mid-century hot dog stands and donut shops shaped as the food they served. Those made for good photographs, too, but their primary aim was to entice drivers to pull off the highway and eat there.
– Casey Newton,
The Verge

Design is approached differently, now with photography in mind. High ceilings, patterns, lighting, tiles, wallpapers, you name it… It all has to be pictured perfect. Now entrepreneurs are taking advantage of this opportunity and taking a step further by hiring architects and builders that understand their brand purpose and vision. More and more we see our clients request neon lights, painting elaborate murals, and embedding floor tiles with branded greetings — all in the hopes that their guests will post them.

While the Sin City Embellishmentthat Venturi and Scott Brown wrote about in Learning from Las Vegas has vanished, the aesthetic is back with a millennial agenda. Details, from furniture to fixtures, fuel the aspirational lifestyle content that Instagram runs on and Entrepreneurs need to capitalize on that.

A good example of this is Media Noche, a fast-casual Cuban restaurant in San Francisco, the hook was the floor. Searching through old Cuban designs, Collins found beautiful old tiles with a dramatic pink-and-green floral designs. She had similar tiles custom-made for the restaurant, and they provided a visual anchor for everything that followed. Other Instagram triggers include banana-print wallpaper in the bathrooms, an old-fashioned white board menu with removable black plastic letters, and an exterior mural of pink flamingos, their heads bowed into the shape of a heart.

…which happens to look a lot like one of our restaurant projects, Tía Cocina.

Markoe, the Owner says that the restaurant’s early social media success has attracted tourists from as far away as China and Japan. “They saw the photos and they say, ‘I want that for my Instagram,’” she says. The average guest takes pictures for 10 minutes before ordering anything, Markoe says. Many bring tripods to better frame their shots. “It’s just really insane,” she says.

For many restaurants, Instagram-centered design means moving to physical spaces that are flooded with natural light, so as to permit more beautiful photographs. Take a look at one of our most recent restaurant projects Restaurante Viandain Santurce, Puerto Rico. The lighting accentuates the details of the bar area while transforming the space with different shading through out the day.

For entrepreneurs seeking social media glory, no detail is too small to consider but there is also a big risk with these spaces, their Instagram-Driven designs can begin to look stale or inauthentic. Customers will know when your story is fake, so don’t push it. Hire and Architect that will help you make the space balanced, beautifully designed and functional.

Ultimately, restaurants are in the business of making memories and photos are the place where we store them. On Instagram, “we basically trade memories of commodities”, showing off the places we’ve been. Restaurants supply the raw material, and we come in to collect it with a smartphone lens.

So there it is, to all new restaurant entrepreneurs we hope you instagram your way to success while cooking great food and making people happy!… With the help of BCS of course. Cheers!

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With today’s increasing focus on sustainability, we must become fluent in the vocabulary and technologies that predict, test, and quantify energy performance in buildings. Familiarity with building energy modeling is essential to respond to the requirements of new green building codes and savvy clients, and this guide provides a start. One key message of the guide is that architects needn’t become technical experts on energy modeling or the myriad software tools currently available. However, a working understanding of the energy modeling process is needed to empower us to fold this necessary and valuable capability into our fundamentally integrative work. The information contained in the guide is designed to entice us to engage engineers, energy modelers, and project team members on energy and performance issues early and throughout the design and operation processes. This document contains a summary of the most prevalent tools for performance and energy modeling currently used in the industry, along with key terminology, processes, and practices that have been used shown to help architects. Content is divided into seven sections and covers: Potential for new and ongoing services Basic methodology Measurement, monitoring, reporting, and calibration The compliance process Energy models and daylighting simulation tools Interoperability and more.
By Steve Cimino 06 Jun, 2018
Caño Martin Peña, Loiza, Humacao: these are the proving grounds for a recent effort to bring solar power to Puerto Rico, which could revolutionize post-disaster resilience in the long term. It will certainly help the hurricane-ravaged island in the near term, thanks to Resilient Power Puerto Rico and cofounder Jonathan Marvel, FAIA. Marvel, inspired by his architect father Thomas while growing up in San Juan, founded Marvel Architects more than 30 years ago. His firm’s goal, to expand the “economic and creative opportunities for a range of clients” through design, is certainly aligned with the task ahead: to provide Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities with avenues to electricity beyond reliance on fossil fuels. How did you get involved in this solar project? Jonathan Marvel: I was in New York when Hurricane Maria hit; afterwards, I started coordinating with my cohorts to establish a sort of utopian, best-case scenario. We came up with a plan to fundraise for bringing solar-powered generators to the island. When I finally made it to San Juan, I was able to procure resources and put together teams for the engineering and installation of these systems. Like everyone else, we read about the Tesla relationship to Puerto Rico and reached out through our network of engineers. Two weeks later, we were certified by them to buy and install their battery system in Puerto Rico. This didn’t start with Tesla; it started with a dream. And it couldn’t have happened without Cristina Roig, a lawyer based in New York and Puerto Rico, and Walter Meyer, a landscape architect in Brooklyn; I also want to acknowledge our electric engineer, Angel Zayas, and our electrical installers Pro Service and New Energy. They all donated lots of time, money, and hardware. Why was Puerto Rico the perfect place for this type of endeavor? Marvel: The electrical authority in Puerto Rico has historically been very careful in how renewable energy gets integrated into their power grid; they remain entirely fossil fuel-based. We were aware that installing a battery backup panel system was very difficult to get permitted; the electrical authority allows you to stream your panelized energy back into their grid, but they have not allowed homeowners or any commercial operation to install a battery into that system. There is a loophole, however, that we were aware of: if you’re off the grid, you can do whatever you want. As the entire island is basically now off the grid, we saw this as a window to create as many sites, as quickly as possible, that use renewable energies with a focus on solar. Architects and engineers have calculated that 10 to 15 percent of the island is covered in flat roof, concrete buildings. Because Puerto Rico is 18 degrees above the equator, a flat roof there is at the perfect angle for efficient solar panel receptivity. These flat roofs became our target for saying, “Let’s put Puerto Rico on a renewable trajectory so when the grid comes back up, the electrical authority has to negotiate with the thousands of people who have installed batteries onto the rooftop units.” "Architects understand that when we talk to communities or clients, the biggest obstacle to any kind of project is a fear of change." - Jonathan Marvel, FAIA There’s nothing better than a crisis to create new opportunities, which here means putting in a new network of solar generators. We’re training young people to become the future tech crews on the island, generating a new kind of entrepreneurial economy by having thriving solar panel and solar converter systems. Every township can now have its own crews. That means more cash flow, more entrepreneurial energy on the island. There are all these secondary and tertiary benefits from completing this system that didn’t exist before. Beyond the island’s need for power and an opportunity to innovate, what do you think led to Puerto Rico ultimately supporting this plan? Marvel: In a situation like this, you realize how much everyone is used to the luxuries of air conditioning, refrigeration, communication, and lights. When all of that is cut off, people start rethinking how things operate. People are ready for something new and different. When the power went out in Puerto Rico, people went to the gas and diesel generators to provide the electricity that was lost. Right now, Puerto Rico is an island of generators. These low-cost generators are running all day, burning gas and diesel without any filtration systems, into a fragile ecosystem. They’re also noisy all day, with neighbors being kept awake because people need power to refrigerate medicine or stay cool. I’m not saying the generators were wrong, but they’re a Band-Aid. It was a wake-up call to everyone, to have them say, “Maybe we wouldn’t have to wait in line for gas and diesel, and pay $150 a day for running these generators, if we had another system in place.” One of the purposes of our lightning-strike installation is to show people that this is a very maintenance-free system; there are no moving parts. The beauty of the solar panels and the batteries is that there is very little you need to do, once it is up and running, to maintain the system. The batteries have a 10-year lifespan, as do the panels. Everything we’re doing is permittable, meets all the electrical codes, and has been installed by certified electricians, so when the power does come up we’ll able to get the paperwork done to make these systems legitimate and legal. As much as anything, you sound like an architect who saw a chance to enlighten an island of open-minded clients. Marvel: It certainly takes the fear factor out the equation. Architects understand that when we talk to communities or clients, the biggest obstacle to any kind of project is a fear of change. It’s not that we’re proposing something wrong or bad; it’s just human nature to resist change. One of our big goals has been to remove any fear of the solar panel generator. Now we have sites that can be opened up to the community; they become showcases and prototypes where people can walk around and see how simple and efficient the installation process can be. There’s so much skilled labor in Puerto Rico, so many people that are ready to work but lack a job. You’ve got access to all the technical crews needed to get 10 of these installed a week, without any real difficulty in finding the people to do the work. Our job as architects is to find the sites, talk to the communities, and train the locals in each area to do more of the same as the opportunities arise. To contribute to providing the most underserved areas of Puerto Rico with solar power, visit Resilient Power Puerto Rico and donate today. Steve Cimino is a Los Angeles-based writer who covers architecture, sustainability, and health.
By Jean Paul Rocafort 06 Jun, 2018
• The highest possible rating for ecological and sustainable building design; the world’s first Platinum-certified manufacturing facility to supply the biopharmaceutical industry Sartorius Stedim Biotech, a leading international equipment provider for the pharmaceutical industry, has now been awarded the highest certification for ecological and sustainable building by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for its new facility in Yauco, Puerto Rico. According to the LEED certification system, an internationally recognized green building program, the new building was certified as “LEED Platinum.” As a result, Sartorius is the only company worldwide to have a LEED Platinum-certified manufacturing facility for the biopharmaceutical industry . LEED provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.
By Jean Paul Rocafort 06 Jun, 2018
With a new Export Services Act and a new Individuals Investors Tax Act, the Island now has a lot more to offer than ever before. Since January of 2012, the Government of Puerto Rico signed into law both Act 20 and Act 22, providing aggressive incentives to urge investors to move to the Island to do business, while becoming a center for exportation of international services throughout the world. According to the Department of Economic Development and Commerce of the Government of Puerto Rico, and due to the Island’s favorable tax and cost structure, as well as its modern and world class infrastructure and attributes, the newly Act 20 to Promote the Exportation of Services of 2012 was designed to provide the appropriate environment and opportunities to make Puerto Rico a center for international services. In order to do so, the Act is focused on encouraging local service providers to expand their businesses by offering their services to clients located outside the Island. Also, it aims to convince foreign services providers to move their businesses to Puerto Rico. Act 20 The Export Services Act of 2012 or Act 20 was established and intended to promote the exportation of services, by providing the appropriate environment and opportunities to make Puerto Rico a center for international services. In order to do so, the Act is focused on encouraging local service providers to expand their businesses by offering their services to clients located outside the Island. Also, it aims to convince foreign services providers to move their businesses to Puerto Rico. Act 20 offers a four (4)% corporate tax rate for Puerto Rican businesses providing services for exportation, 100% tax-exempt dividends from earnings and profits derived from the export services income of eligible businesses, and a 60% exemption on municipal taxes. Since there are special rules provided for the year of the move from the United States to Puerto Rico, investors are encouraged to follow them closely in order to take full advantage of the new laws and its benefits. Act 20 offers: 4% corporate tax rate 100% tax-exempt dividends 60% exemption on municipal taxes 20-year decree guaranteeing these rates No federal taxes on Puerto Rico source income
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