Odd One Out Cafe Santa Monica restaurant architecture photos, Californian bubble tea

Odd One Out Cafe in Santa Monica

December 3, 2024

Architects: Wick Architecture & Design

Location: 1260 3rd Street Promenade Santa Monica, CA. 90401, USA

Photos: Here and Now Agency

Odd One Out, USA

Wick Architecture & Design and Land Design Studio proudly introduce their brand design of the Santa Monica store of Odd One Out Tea, a Taiwanese company that has taken the concept of traditional bubble tea to new heights. With two stores in Taiwan, including the company’s flagship store in Taipei, Odd One Out Tea has now opened its second US outlet in Santa Monica, California, furthering its expansion into the US market with teams of mixologists, tea experts, and gelato maestros.

The project revolved around an existing commercial space on Santa Monica’s famed Third Street Promenade, a popular pedestrian mall that began to flourish in the 1980s when closed off to traffic. In addition to traditional stores that line the sides of the mall, its central corridor is marked by a series of kiosk-style businesses that cater to the pedestrian flow.

An infusion of brand DNA
After winning a bid from the city to lease one of the kiosk pavilions bookending the Promenade, Odd One Out Tea engaged Wick Architecture & Design and Land Design Studio to develop a design plan for the structure that would capture the essence of the business and the brand. They approached the firms with an expedited mandate for submitting a very detailed design set and proof of concept to the City of Santa Monica within a three-month period, including plans, renderings, and material boards.

The client’s ultimate goal was to incorporate some of the DNA of its Taipei flagship store, and to transform it in a way that would also respect the culture of Southern California. With a strong orange color scheme at the brand’s core, that element featured prominently in the initial design set, with the design team envisioning the pavilion exterior accentuated in an ombre style.

A negotiated design scheme
For decades, the Third Street Promenade thrived, becoming one of the most popular shopping districts in the Los Angeles area by the 2000s. However, the post-pandemic era has been marked by a shift in consumer habits, and that effect has lingered along the Promenade. That gave the city a vested interest in the success of the Odd One Out Tea project, which aligned with ongoing efforts to secure more food and beverage concepts at the struggling north end of the Promenade. Accordingly, the city has recalibrated its focus to work with progressive young clients to help recharge and recreate the street.

That being said, the proposed color scheme for the Odd One Out Tea store required extensive negotiations with the city before finally being approved.

“A large part of the negotiations revolved around being able to rebrand the entire pavilion, which had not been in the mindset of the city,” explains David Wick, principal and lead designer of Wick Architecture & Design. “With additional municipal restrictions on altering the roof and signage, our recommendation was that the building itself should be the sign, branded in the colors of the client.”

That type of negotiation is what made a collaboration between Wick Architecture & Design and LAND Design Studio the perfect choice for the Odd One Out Tea project, with over 100 food and beverage designs completed in their vast portfolio, including many coffee shops. In addition to being very familiar with the typology of the business, their extensive work in Santa Monica has provided them with an understanding of some of the city’s strict regulations.

A colorful integration
Once approved, the designers focused on a signature move to rebrand the exterior of the structure in a colorful way. Additionally, while maintaining the existing shell of the building, including its rolling garage doors, they focused on a full redesign of its gutted interior. That included opening up the front half of the building for customers to place their orders and sit and enjoy their fare in an open, but sheltered space.

With the existing layout of the coiling garage doors, the firm faced a challenge in terms of the placement of lighting fixtures. However, in envisioning ‘unintentional’ lighting from the onset, their design solution was to introduce simple globe lighting to attract the eye to the ordering station, but without distracting from the overall design of the space.

To convey the sense of pride that the company has in its craft preparation processes, the design team decided to expose the front-of-house production kitchen by implementing a glass divide behind the front counter. To further highlight the production zone, they punched a series of windows in the pavilion’s exterior shell to enable passersby to take in the kitchen operations and entice them to indulge in the products being prepared. In addressing municipal restrictions concerning signage, the firm evaded any issues by designing a series of smaller rectangular blade signs that emerge from the exterior to introduce the brand.

“We carried over some elements from the Taipei stores, including beautiful planting in the central seating area,” notes Wick. “We also clad the interior ceiling in cork, which is used abundantly in Taipei, and our design produces a rich, layered effect on the ceiling under the glass of the rolled-up doors.”

Designing a welcoming buzz
In leveraging their extensive experience and expertise to address the challenges of brand adaptation in a heavily regulated market, the designers have fulfilled the client’s vision with brand penetration that is contributing to a destination that people want to visit once again. Odd One Out Tea’s Santa Monica flagship is becoming a beacon of rejuvenated enthusiasm for the Third Street Promenade, spearheaded by the navigational skills and design excellence of Wick Architecture & Design and LAND Design Studio.

“One of the biggest challenges is that we were working with an existing envelope, and our intent was to successfully adapt that envelope to the client’s brand,” concludes Andrew Lindley, Founder and Lead Designer at LAND Design Studio. “It was really about the pop of the color and the conceptual design, and we’re proud of what we accomplished here.”

Odd One Out Cafe in Santa Monica, CA – building information

Architects: Wick Architecture & Design – https://www.wickarch.com/
Project Name: Odd One Out
Project Size: 810 square feet
Client: Odd One Out
Project Location: 1260 3rd Street Promenade Santa Monica, CA. 90401
Architect: David Wick of Wick Architecture and Design in collaboration with Andrew Lindley of LAND Design Studio.

Photographer: Here and Now Agency
Lighting: Astro Globe lighting fixtures from Andrew Neyer’s Stuff
Opening Date: August, 2024

About Wick Architecture & Design
Founded in 2006 in Los Angeles, California, Wick Architecture & Design is a firm committed to commercial and residential sustainable design and construction. Led by David Wick, Architect, LEED AP, and principal and lead designer, the firm’s goal is to blend nature with the built environment to create buildings which feel as healthy and holistic as being in a ‘natural space’.

After earning a B.S. from Art Center College of Design in 1994, David Wick began his professional career practicing with Eric Moss Architects and Hodgetts+Fung, where he worked on the Hollywood Bowl, the award-winning Sinclair Pavilion at Art Center, and the Hyde Park Library for the City of Los Angeles. From 2001 to 2006, Wick was a partner at Heusch Inc., overseeing all aspects of the practice including the Bodega Chacra winery in Argentina, Chopard retail stores, Cello restaurant in New York, the Algodon Hotel in Buenos Aires, and the Oak Pass residence. David Wick has been LEED certified since 2006, and Build It Green certified since 2008.

Since the inception of Wick Architecture & Design in 2006, the firm has designed and completed a multitude of commercial and residential projects, including the award-winning Gold-Diggers Hotel, a ‘Build It Green’ and Energy Star certified home in Sherman Oaks, as well as showrooms for Bisazza, Richard Mille, Hublot, Westime, Joeʼs Jeans, and Max Studio, and restaurants and coffee shops including Stereoscope, Loqui, Seabirds, Mexicano, Chipotle, Cava, and Groundwork.

About LAND Design Studio
After earning a Bachelor’s of Architecture degree from the University of Oregon in 1993, Andrew Lindley worked for several Architecture and Design offices in Los Angeles, including Eric Owen Moss Architects, Hodgetts + Fung, Gensler, and George Yu Architects (GYA). In 2005, Andrew founded LAND Design Studio as a vehicle for pursuing his interests in commercial design and prototyping of retail and restaurant spaces, as well as the brand rollout of those concepts. Since its founding, the firm’s specializations have grown to include retail, restaurant, commercial, and shell & core design.

In recent years, in collaboration with Wick Architecture & Design, completed projects have included the design for Vidiots at the Historic Eagle Theater, the offices and showroom of Vitality Institute on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles, and the Gold-Digger’s bar, hotel, and recording studio in East Hollywood.

Prototype and rollout designed projects across the U.S. include clients Maxstudio, Joe’s Jeans, and UNA, as well as restaurants including Chipotle, Shophouse, CAVA, and Groundwork Coffee. Restaurant design projects in the Los Angeles area have included Queen Street for Last Word Hospitality, Mexicano, Church & State, and Maple Block Meat.

Photography: Here and Now Agency

Odd One Out Cafe, Santa Monica, California images / information received 031224

Location: Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, Southern California, United States of America

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