| 
Brent Zeigler
Title: Principal and President/Director of Design, Dyer Brown
Age: 46
Industry experience: 24 years
Dyer Brown’s restaurant practice has a long list of reservations. The Boston-based architecture firm recently completed projects for Red Heat Tavern’s newest location in Westborough, Evviva Cucina’s third and newest location in Marlborough and the Latin-Asian concept Nahita, which reopened last week following a redesign of the former Liquid Art House in Boston’s Back Bay. Dyer Brown’s current projects include the 20,000-square-foot Time Out Market food hall at the Fenway’s Landmark Center scheduled to open next year. Dyer Brown Principal Brent Zeigler grew up in small-town Ohio and worked at firms including Elkus Manfredi Architects and Einhorn Yaffee Prescott before joining Dyer Brown in 2011.
Q: What are you hearing from restaurant owners about their design preferences?
A: It’s what we’re hearing in a lot of sectors: people are really looking for unique experiences. Even within some of the smaller chains that we’re working with, making them very much about their locations and making sure each location feels unique. It’s something that makes it feel comfortable and those spaces feel more carefully crafted, more intentional. Everyone has seen how the boutique approach, even if it’s done in a chain format, resonates with people. For the longest time, chains focused on brand loyalty around sameness and people knowing what to expect. I know when I’m traveling for work, I also appreciate the surprises and that uniqueness that tie it to the local surroundings and the city.
In restaurants, bars are still a focal point of a lot of designs: whether it’s people sitting at the bar dining, bars are really very much integrated into the flow. For a recent restaurant project, we had three or four types of seating that felt like they were in the bar. Part of that is being part of the action: the buzz of what’s going on in a restaurant. There are still times where the private dining room is important for business dinners. One restaurant had bar seating and pizza ovens out front, and high-top seating and some more standard two- and four-tops, but they also did a lot of takeout business. So, we designed an area of just single banquettes with a little table perch, so people could have a comfortable space and not be standing in the bar waiting in the way of the action, still being accommodated.
Q: Is the industrial look still in vogue?
A: It’s funny, we joke here that if we never see another Edison bulb again we’ll be really happy. That has waned a little bit, the reclaimed wood and black steel pipes and Edison bulbs, but I still see it. It really comes down to the individual concept of the restaurant. That aesthetic has kind of run its course.
Q: What seems to be taking its place?
A: That’s what I’m trying to put my finger on. A lot of the things we’ve been working on recently have a more higher-end feel, a little more international flavor, and lots of global influences, really focusing on the concept and cuisine. We’re seeing the international influences in the cuisine finding their way into the interiors and being true to whatever the concept is.
Q: How much do restaurant jobs cost right now?
A: Boston’s a high-cost construction market. We’re hearing from contractors that if you’re doing a full-scale restaurant with new equipment, you’re talking $350 to $400 per square foot. If you’re doing a reconceptualization of something that’s already built out, you can do a renovation for $150 to $250 per square foot.
Q: What percentage of Dyer Brown’s business is in the restaurant sector?
A: Restaurants are maybe in the 10 to 15 percent range. If you add hospitality, it’s closer to 25 percent.
Q: With the growing popularity of food halls in Boston, what differentiates them from a food court?
A: We’re working on a big food hall in Boston (Time Out Market at the former Landmark Center) and again, it’s going to a non-chain-based tenanting of the space. Their whole concept is they’re using the ratings of the local restaurants for best burger, best sushi, etc. and those are the people who are invited to have a kiosk within their food hall. It’s a really curated type of approach to who those vendors are. When I hear food court, it’s a handful of national chains.
Q: As a cook and gardener, what’s your go-to meal at home?
A: For me being a designer and architect, the most rewarding thing is when I go to the fridge and open it up and create something. It’s not about cooking from recipes. It’s really about looking in there and seeing what the materials are, putting it together in a good way.
Zeigler’s Five Favorite Colognes:
- Eight & Bob,The Original
- Givenchy,Play
- Jo Malone,Pomegranate Noir
- Victor & Rolf,Spice Bomb
- YSL,L’Homme
