For the second Los Angeles outpost of Loqui taqueria, David Wick, principal of local firm Wick Architecture & Design, wanted to elevate the mom-and-pop feel of the brand’s first location in Culver City. For the new 1,346-square-foot spot in LA’s Arts District, “the owner, who is Mexican-American, wanted a space that was refined but did not look overdesigned,” says Wick, who collaborated with LAND Design Studio principal Andrew Lindley.

Housed on the ground floor of a four-story former industrial building, the designers augmented original concrete floors and exposed pipes with terracotta bricks embossed to create shadowlines for visual interest. Fashioned in an alternating vertical and horizontal pattern, the bricks span the interiors and the restaurant’s entryway courtyard. “The idea was that an owner-builder with a strong sense of design had built the place him or herself,” Lindley explains.

Read more from Boutique Design’s Spring 2020 issue.

Photos: Nicole LaMotte