Location: Pasadena, CA
Size: 1,503 sq. ft.
Category: Interiors

When Intelligentsia Coffee dared to re-imagine the daily coffee ritual, they turned to Prospect Studio for help. Intelligentsia, already celebrated for its friendly cafes and specialty pours, wanted to create a new way of making a cup that maximized flavor, consistency and interaction between baristas and guests. So, they swapped traditional espresso machines for cutting-edge, freeze-dried coffees at their downtown Pasadena, CA, location.

To emphasize this innovative shift, the Prospect Studio team eliminated the typical long coffee bar and created three stations designed to encourage conversation.

A translucent counter subtly links the stations together while still nudging the queue to engage with the drink-making process. The simplicity of the materials used, plus a striking lighting design, add to the space’s airy, visionary appeal. The resulting Illumination Bar is the U.S.’s first instant-espresso café, which offers a groundbreaking experience in a historic, albeit newly imagined, setting.

The Mills Act, an incentive program in California for the restoration and preservation of qualified historic buildings, is administered by local governments. Each local government establishes their own criteria to determine how many contracts they will allow in their jurisdiction. The City of Pasadena’s historic preservation program promotes the identification, evaluation, rehabilitation, adaptive use and restoration of historic structures such as the one Intelligentsia moved into. This meant that the outside of the building could not be modified much, and any changes that were to be done had to go through an approval process for obtaining a Certificate of Appropriateness for alterations to the exterior of the building.