Morimoto Asia wins AIA Orlando’s Design Built Award of Merit
The American Institute of Architects Orlando awarded the Design Built Award of Merit to Morimoto Asia at Disney Springs on Saturday, April 25th. The collaboration between Studio V Architecture and Patina Restaurant Group is the first pan-Asian concept from Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.
“We would like to extend our thanks to the entire project team,” says Studio V founder and principal Jay Valgora, “for making our designs a reality and creating the amazing spaces in Morimoto Asia which inspire and excite through different sensory experiences.”
Studio V strove to pay homage to the space’s former life as a bottling factory. “The old factory’s façade,” Valgora says, “is interrupted by a triple-height wall of windows and the old conveyor belts of the factory are re-imagined as a zigzagging and spiraling chandelier of illuminated glass bottles. The lofty thirty-six foot high ceilings, airy open spaces, trans-level views, and uninterrupted flow between indoor and outdoor spaces cement Morimoto Asia as an opulent dining destination.”
Morimoto Asia also boasts one of the largest bars in the world, over 270 feet long, that snakes across the ground floor’s grand dining room, wraps around the grand stairway, then soars to the upper level, where a mezzanine connects to multiple levels of outdoor terraces.
Having completed Morimoto Asia, Studio V is currently focusing on several projects in New York City, including the transformation of the Empire Stores warehouses near the iconic Brooklyn Bridge in Dumbo into a high-end retail and office complex.
