Corazón is a Mexican restaurant for Portland chef, Chris Israel. The space is the brainchild of a team of folks at Jessica Helgerson Interior Design, who describe what “drove much of our design” saying, “a densely packed Mexican market with dozens of baskets hanging above a walkway. We wanted to recreate that warm organic feeling.” The space is situated at the ground floor of the Indigo Building, a Portland high rise designed by ZGF Architects. Creating a feeling of welcoming warmth and intimacy evocative of Mexico was a difficult challenge, due to the industrial nature of the existing space with its very high ceilings, vast expanse of concrete floor, and very little visual separation from a busy street.
According to the architects: “We began our design process with lots of image research, and landed on one photo in particular which drove much of our design; a densely packed Mexican market with dozens of baskets hanging above a walkway. We wanted to recreate that warm organic feeling. Our concept for the space was to use readily available, inexpensive materials to add an organic layer of texture, divide the space into a bar, entry and main dining room, and lower the ceiling to a more intimate height. A strip of planters behind the seating softens and mitigates the adjacency to the sidewalk and street. We worked with local glass blower Esque to create bar fixtures that create a warm glow. ”
