The Airliner

Location
Los Angeles, CA

Year
2025

Status
Complete

Project Lead
Jack Raymond

Project Team
Samantha Radice
Nabild Davidson
Claire Rosenberg

Originally opened in the 1920s, The Airliner is a bar and restaurant made locally famous for hosting music nights, such as the electronic and hip-hop Low End Theory in the early 2000s. In 2023, chef Vin Nguyen reopened the downstairs bar with a pan-Asian izakaya concept for food and drink. The LADG's renovation of the upstairs music venue completes the reopening of the entire two-story building.

For the music venue, Nguyen and his partners asked the LADG to create a Los Angeles version of the high-end vinyl listening bars popular in Shanghai and Tokyo. While the upstairs space had operated as a music venue for over 100 years, it had never been designed for that purpose and was a collection of ad hoc additions made one on top of another over many decades. (A woodburning fireplace remains visible on one side of the stage.) The LADG’s challenge was to dramatically transform the look and function of the space while honoring its historic legacy and reusing as much existing material as possible.

The firm's solution was to think of the second-floor venue as a plenum or "music box" on top of the existing bar. Blank on the outside to preserve the historic facade, the interior features new insertions that support a high-end listening experience. A new acoustically designed ceiling is modeled after hand-folded paper. The LADG digitally scanned small pieces of actual paper, then fabricated them as vacuum-formed panels at ten times their original scale, using the folds and wrinkles to help control echo within the space. Lighting and HVAC systems are housed in two large hollow beams that run the length of the venue, creating a forced perspective that makes the compact space feel larger.

The rest of the fixtures and furnishings adhere closely to the DIY ethos of the “paper” ceiling, while exploring scale and refined craftsmanship. The bar’s footrest is cast in concrete using SonoTubes—typically employed as formwork for columns and posts—while the bar itself is constructed from standard lumber commonly used for moldings and trim. Custom audio equipment, designed and supplied by Los Angeles DJ and vinyl aficionado Nolan (Dustin) Grey, anticipates the venue's return as a hub for the progressive music scene.

Furniture throughout is a contemporary reinterpretation of Enzo Mari's iconic Autoprogettazione series from the 1970s, which encouraged people to build their own furniture using simple tools and open-source construction plans. At the Airliner, the LADG revisits this concept with a series of furniture with a subtly different attitude. The "Re nzo" chair is equally easy to build – just one sheet of plywood yields six chairs – but stresses the way common materials can be assembled to make a distinct sensibility. Compared to the original, Re nzo feels relaxed and approachable—less dogmatic, more casual. Its subtle lean invites you to sit comfortably, and integrates easily with people and furniture. The DIY details are visible, but selectively revealed. The tables, benches, and stools echo the design of the chairs, using materials economically in a way that is highly evocative and casual.