Our El Rey Mexican Restaurant and Trading Post project showcases a commercial space designed in a Rustic Contemporary / Modern Hacienda architectural style, specifically tailored for a premium Mexican dining venue.
This style honors traditional, earth-grounded Mexican craftsmanship while implementing the sharp geometry, open volumes, and indoor-outdoor fluid layout of contemporary commercial design.
- Core Architectural Style
- Modern Hacienda / Spanish Rustic: The design reinterprets classic Mexican hacienda architecture. It keeps the warm, welcoming, and communal atmosphere of a traditional tavern or courtyard but strips away the heavy stucco arches and clay roof tiles in favor of clean, linear framing and soaring, asymmetrical roof heights.
- Commercial Pavilion Layout: The building functions as a massive open-air pavilion. Deep, dramatic roof overhangs provide shade for expansive outdoor patio seating, creating a completely seamless transition between the exterior entrance and the interior dining rooms.
- Structural & Exterior Design Features
- Soaring Shed Rooflines & Exposed Beams: A defining structural feature is the single-slope shed roof supported by heavy, rugged timber beams. These structural wood corbels project out past the building’s envelope, creating a powerful rhythm along the entry facade.
- Stacked-Stone Feature Walls: Massive, floor-to-ceiling accent walls are constructed from rugged, natural stacked stone. These walls provide incredible texture, ground the building to its landscape, and double as rustic indoor fireplaces.
- Large-Scale Glazing: Industrial steel-framed windows and expansive glass entryways break up the heavy wood and stone, allowing natural light to wash through the space and giving passersby a direct view into the energetic interior.
- Interior Architecture & Decorative Materiality
The interior spaces shift into a richly textured, atmospheric environment dominated by warm woods and historic craftsmanship:
- Reclaimed Wood Cladding: The ceilings, walls, and structural trusses are entirely wrapped in rough-sawn, weathered wood planks. This creates an incredibly intimate, acoustically warm, and cozy dining atmosphere despite the high ceilings.
- Artisanal Lighting (Wagon Wheels & Star Lanterns): The lighting design is heavily thematic, featuring massive, custom-built wooden wagon wheel chandeliers fitted with industrial Edison bulbs. Complementing these are intricate, hanging Spanish-style tin star lanterns and glass globes that cast complex shadows on the wooden surfaces.