Mirroring the chefs’ philosophies behind everything made in the kitchen, our design strategy focuses on the synergy of prime materials - concrete, steel, and light - choreographed to be more than their individual parts.  Runner & Stone, named after traditional millstones used to grind grain, is a neighborhood bakery, restaurant and bar, featuring hand-made breads and locally grown produce.  Bakers begin mixing dough at 2am, and the restaurant stays open until midnight.  Simplicity of material, elegant detailing, and fluid sightlines create an environment that transitions from pre-dawn production to early morning café, followed by a casual lunch and formal dining space.  

Building materials and processes are as hand-crafted as the food.  Raw steel plates were bent to form the bar and façade; redwood planks re-claimed from Brooklyn water towers were transformed into custom furniture; and flour sacks emptied by Runner & Stone's baker were re-purposed as the formwork for nearly 1,000 gently swollen concrete building units, fabricated on site.  Each "belly block" is uniquely shaped, forming billowing walls of concrete that thread through the restaurant, up the stairwell and into the residences above.

To provide a feeling of expansiveness in a narrow space, the dining and kitchen areas are nested into three half-levels, surrounding a garden courtyard, intermittently permeated by the warm smells of the bakery.  Oblique views throughout the space engage the sky, street, and iconic rooftop water tower. Partial visibility of dining zones creates clusters of privacy while maintaining a fluid spatial experience.