747 BAR
in an act of courage, a 747 lands in Sicily
Despite year-round sunny weather, interiors in the baroque city of Syracuse, on the island of Sicily, are typically dark and bleak. So when a developer asked me to help him infuse the vibrancy of Miami Beach into this area traditionally immersed in conservative elegance, I wanted to create a new dialogue between the city’s past and present. The challenge was to land a 747 in Sicily, then transform its interior into a bar, restaurant, and nightclub that would reflect a feeling of fresh air and sunshine as well as the excitement of traveling to a faraway place. Like the boy next door-turned-punk rocker, this structure turns heads on these quaint Italian streets. But 747 BAR, which opened in 2003, is not a statement about design. Instead it was meant to encourage southern Europeans to live locally and breathe globally.