Kappo Masa at Gagosian Gallery, completed in 2014, was the first venture between renowned chef Masa Takayama and legendary art dealer Larry Gagosian. Modellus Novus crafted an homage to Japanese kappo cuisine and an entirely new type of space that blends restaurant and art gallery. Accessed by way of an illuminated amber-hued stair, the subterranean restaurant is hidden beneath Gagosian Gallery’s ground floor retail and gallery spaces. In order to reimagine the previously abandoned bank vault, MN precisely coordinated and managed a constructionally complicated design within the listed historic building.

The space evokes the Japanese phenomenon of hidden restaurants located within retail spaces or the higher floors of office buildings, upending Western notions of what luxury hospitality experiences should be. MN worked closely with art world luminary Larry Gagosian to transform his flagship gallery into a destination that engages its neighborhood. The firm sought to imagine a space that was intersectional, both and neither an art gallery nor restaurant. While Kappo Masa features priceless work by Picasso, Warhol, Twombly and others, it is at the same time less intimidating and more accessible than assumed.

Photos by Naho Kubota