LOT Office for Architecture Designs Oasis-Like Digs for Devoción in Downtown Brooklyn

When Devoción‘s first location opened in Williamsburg, Brooklynites delighted at the roastery’s oasis-like design and authentic Colombian brews. The beloved coffeehouse has returned for round two with a 1,700-square-foot space on the ground level of a luxury residential building near the borough’s bustling downtown corridor. Greek-American firm LOT Office for Architecture spearheaded interiors that honor local traditions and mother nature in equal measure.

Thanks to a weeklong excursion through Colombia researching regional materials and furnishings, principals Leonidas Trampoukis and Eleni Petaloti infused Devoción with traditional motifs and vignettes that evoke casual streetside scenes. Handmade cement tile flooring in traditional patterns sets the mood, with eye-catching geometric shapes continuing upward through perforated brick-lined walls. “The cement texture allows for an unpolished look as found and kept in old mansions in Cartagena,” say the designers.

The 40-seat cafe’s shining moment, however, is the indoor tropical garden. Created by plantwalldesign, it boasts more than 35 unique plant species—fishtail palms, carambola trees, and watermelon peperomias among them—that gather light via expansive floor-to-ceiling windows. Presiding within are vintage armchairs that local artisans sanded and finished in—you guessed it—a coffee stain.