Designing a Chain Restaurant for 40 Million Travelers
Skift Take
Transportation dining has the potential to be transportative in and of itself, especially when designing for durability doesn’t mean sacrificing aesthetics.
The estimated 40,000,000 people that pass through Washington D.C’s Union Station annually were a major consideration throughout the 6-month development of one of its newest bars and restaurants. Legal Sea Bar (part of the 37-Restaurant Legal Sea Foods chain) opened this past July on the West side of the station’s mezzanine level, was designed with high traffic in mind.
Griz Dwight, principal and owner of his semi-eponymous, capital-based firm, Grizform Design Architects, designed the restaurant’s sister space, Legal Sea Foods, at Reagan National Airport before tackling this project. As Dwight explains, “transportation dining automatically implies that you’re on your way somewhere.”
And so the casual bar/restaurant combo is “primarily designed for people trying to catch a train.” Small details take travelers’ needs into account: there are designated areas to put suitcases aside where visitors are still able to keep an eye on them, sufficient space between tables to s
