Tono Architects

Take a look at page 84 of the latest edition  of Fine Living Lancaster-Issue 15 or here for the digital version for the latest project completed by TONO Architects.  Garber Metrology officially opened their new headquarters on July 9, 2010.

Being in architecture for as long as I have been (24 years), it has given me a great appreciation for artistic expression in many forms. One of my favorite is food. Yes, you heard me correctly, food. Now when you think of most food you really don’t have any vision of artistic expression. But several years ago a friend of mine asked if my wife and I would like to go on a dinner excursion to NYC. We sat in the kitchen of this very nice restaurant which was run by Gordon Ramsey. Well I can tell you, after that experience I have a totally new look at food in both presentation and ingredients. Since then, my wife and I as well as my daughter, have gone to many local restaurants in search of an artistic flair presented in the food, and we have found a few.
But with this in mind, my daughter had never experienced the place where the search all started. My wife and I had been telling her since the first experience how both unusual and wonderful that experience was. And we had even gone back with our good friends, this time to Maze which is a more casual dining experience with a similar menu, and confirmed it all again.
So my wife and I felt it was time to have our daughter experience this firsthand before heading back to college. So we made the reservation for lunch on Friday, August 20. We took a day trip to NYC with our daughter. When we got to Maze, she was intrigued by the interior design and architecture, but what we came for and received was artistic wonderfulness. Their menu had a dozen a la-carte items which were either an appetizer or entrée. So we used a pick three option, each selecting three different items. We were not disappointed. I will not go into detail on all the items, but will talk about our favorites. My wife truly enjoyed the Marinated beetroot and ricotta appetizer with pine nuts and Cabernet Sauvignon dressing. My daughters favorite was a pan seared Salmon with butternut squash, gnocchi and a brown butter vinaigrette. My favorite was the Tortellini of beef short rib, escarole, trompette royale and dashi. We shared each dish and after that we each picked a dessert. Chocolate pudding with stout ice cream, pretzel and peanut butter powder, Chocolate fondant and green cardamom caramel with sea salt and almond ice cream, and Vanilla custard with strawberries and others fruits with a strawberry sorbet. Everything was wonderful, with beauty both visually and in taste.

Next time you are out dining, maybe this will give you a new appreciation for the artist who lives in the kitchen. Unless of course you’re at a fast food joint.

-Dave

The following article was written by the Principle of TONO Architect for a recent edition of Fine Living Lancaster:

 

“Sustain”

By D. Hunter Johnson, AIA

Principal Architect for TONO Architects, LLC

Among popular culture’s more verdant and overused terms spoken unremittingly in business circles, online communities, print media and slick advertising campaigns, the qualifier “green” has become as ubiquitous and nondescript as “light”, and “free”. We attach the “green” superlative to our cars, toiletries, banking techniques, vacations, and yes, architecture. Whether self-gratifying or self-deprecating, we want to believe we are helping preserve the planet and its natural resources by purchasing products and services with smaller carbon footprints thereby presuming we have lessened the load on the local landfill and patched a little ozone back onto the Stratosphere.

At the same time, we still refer to ourselves as “consumers” with zealous vigor. Can one truly be a “green” consumer?

In the face of one of the worst economies in generations, sluggish, if not paralyzed by consumers shying from spending and thereby “consuming”, we find ourselves in the ultimate quandary. We recognize the need to stimulate the economy through spending therefore increasing sales, services, manufacturing and so on, and yet we refrain. The “economy” after all is the sum of our participation in the production, exchange, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. There’s that word again: “consumption”.

While the spoken mantra for the next generation is to step lightly upon the earth and to reduce, reuse and recycle, by doing so, our new conservationist mindset may in fact inhibit the economy. Or, is it the other way around? Are we inadvertently helping our environment by encumbering the economy simply by maintaining a more fiscally prudent approach at present?

Fundamentally, we should recognize the inherently paradox. While on the one hand, we desire to preserve our livelihoods by invigorating the systems of commerce we have developed in post-industrial America, and yet, we also desire to insure our quality of life by conserving the very resources consumed in that process. Perhaps we need a new model. One in which we move away from consumption and towards sustainability. Ultimately though, our system needs to be one of regeneration.

Having dinner with a friend and fellow pontificator earlier this week at a newly opened downtown establishment, we discussed many of these topics and then he mentioned upon returning to the Lancaster area a few years back he noted the popularity of the “I ♥ City Life” bumper stickers. It struck me as an appropriate allegory for sustainable living.

Lancaster was settled in 1733 as a strategic inland crossroads for regional commerce in the new colony of Pennsylvania. Some 277 years later, the city is experiencing another rebirth among its many by offering a healthy diversity of people, functions and attractions. Through significant civic and private investment strategies among the numerous grassroots “storefront” improvements in owner-occupied structures, the city has become a showcase for sustainability. At almost three centuries young, many of America’s urban centers represent our best opportunity for regenerative living by building upon the physical infrastructure that already exists. Intrinsically, cities, such as Lancaster, contain our largest infrastructure investments, our centers of commerce, and our seeds of government, therefore by their mere density and durability they have become our most feasible ecologically sustainable physical areas to maintain over the long term.

I recently heard Mayor Rick Gray say: “So goes the City, so goes the County.” A viable, healthy Lancaster city, means a robust, livable Lancaster County. As we keep the City healthy, we keep our heritage in tact, we pass legacy to our children and grandchildren, and we maintain irreplaceable physical infrastructure. Now that’s sustainability.