Liars |
STATUS: Completed |
CATEGORY: Restaurant |
YEAR: 2026 |
SIZE: 170m2 |
LOCATION: Boston, (USA) |
COLLABORATORS: Pre Studio, Studio FKIA & Best Co, Erik Bruce Studio, R2 Architects |
CLIENTS: Liars |
Liars is a full-service restaurant and bar, created by combining two adjoining retail spaces with identical footprints. Their “twin” condition, along with the unusual geometry of the building’s askew north–south walls, became central to the project’s identity.
The design preserves and reveals the historic character of the brick building, through areas of partially exposed and painted brick walls, a pressed tin ceiling, and a central steel column. The resulting atmosphere has a raw industrial quality that is open, airy, and ripe for intervention.
A wraparound bar anchors the left side of the restaurant, where a custom perforated zigzag metal screen rises from the tiled wall of the back bar up to the ceiling. The screen functions simultaneously as bottle display, spatial divider, and backdrop for cantilevered banquette seating on the opposite side. Together, these interventions create a range of dining conditions while maintaining visual continuity across the space.
Material decisions reinforce the idea of the spaces as twins: closely related, yet distinct. The same matte brown tile is used throughout, but installed in reverse at select locations to expose the traces of its manufacturing process.
The head chef’s background in graphic design also informed the project. A custom blue & yellow millwork stain was developed in reference to risograph printing. This treatment becomes a defining visual element throughout the interior.
Through restrained spatial interventions and playful material contrasts, Liars transforms two disparate spaces into a unified environment that embraces the raw materiality and irregular geometry of the existing building. Nothing is ever perfectly straight anyway.
The design preserves and reveals the historic character of the brick building, through areas of partially exposed and painted brick walls, a pressed tin ceiling, and a central steel column. The resulting atmosphere has a raw industrial quality that is open, airy, and ripe for intervention.
A wraparound bar anchors the left side of the restaurant, where a custom perforated zigzag metal screen rises from the tiled wall of the back bar up to the ceiling. The screen functions simultaneously as bottle display, spatial divider, and backdrop for cantilevered banquette seating on the opposite side. Together, these interventions create a range of dining conditions while maintaining visual continuity across the space.
Material decisions reinforce the idea of the spaces as twins: closely related, yet distinct. The same matte brown tile is used throughout, but installed in reverse at select locations to expose the traces of its manufacturing process.
The head chef’s background in graphic design also informed the project. A custom blue & yellow millwork stain was developed in reference to risograph printing. This treatment becomes a defining visual element throughout the interior.
Through restrained spatial interventions and playful material contrasts, Liars transforms two disparate spaces into a unified environment that embraces the raw materiality and irregular geometry of the existing building. Nothing is ever perfectly straight anyway.