THE FOREMAN
Nestled at the heart of a 1907 industrial building, The Foreman is an intimate 500 square-foot bar that transforms its compact footprint into a study of light, material, and spatial focus.
With limited seating and a deliberate plan, the project concentrates attention rather than dispersing it, culminating in a dramatic lounge positioned directly beneath the building’s central pyramid skylight.
The design choreographs a procession: a single door entry leads along the length of the marble bar, guiding patrons toward a square room capped by the pyramid, where three walls are fully upholstered in rich tufted fabric.
The geometry is exacting, square in plan with a pyramid skylight above, creating a spatial stillness and symmetry that heightens the intimacy of the room.
Lighting is intentionally restrained. A minimal edge-lit strategy outlines the bar and emphasizes the skylight’s geometry, allowing the natural light to remain the protagonist during the day, and have the edge of the space fall away at night.
The existing industrial floor, worn and scarred, is preserved to expose the DNA of the building’s original post-and-beam construction. The material palette of stone, wood, fabric grounds the space in tactile richness.
THE FOREMAN
YEAR 2017
ROGERS, ARKANSAS
Photos by Andrew Camarillo
Construction by Stronghold Construction
Engineering Consultation by GA Engineering
Rather than transform the space, The Foreman distills it. It amplifies what was already latent in the building, light, proportion, structure, allowing architecture to do less, but mean more.