Heist 1.0 and 2.0
Both projects won recognition as Washington DC’s Best Nightclubs.
Background
The Heist is an award-winning nightclub located in the heart of DC's Dupont Circle, and known for its unique craft cocktails and top-shelf champagne bar. The original Heist 1.0 evoked a space that had been ransacked of its valuables to create the illusion of a heist having taken place. Heist 2.0 was designed to suggest a "post heist" concept that is purely abstract. The cohesive, integrated space gives patrons the distinct feeling of being in a vault.
Heist 1.0
The Concept
In Heist 2.0, the "spoils" of a heist adorn the rough, concrete interior: smooth, rich finishes of brass, glass and granite create a rough luxe feel. The forms are classical and minimalist.
A lava rock-lined staircase (with solid brass balustrade) evokes the feeling of entering a subterranean vault, while a series of monolithic, modular concrete pilasters line the perimeter and support a floating ceiling.
Heist 2.0
Design Highlights
The nightclub’s infrastructure requirements included a low ceiling to support structural beams, sprinkler pipes, air conditioning ducts, plumbing pipes and more. Since the ceiling could not be raised, geometric coved recesses were created to suggest height where possible.
A dramatic floor provides the club's unifying's motif. Black hexagonal tiles stamped into the concrete floor form a 4-pointed star in the negative space, and create the base for the project. The hexagonal-shaped tile is repeated in the tips of the pilasters and again in the recesses of the ceiling. The asymmetry of the ceiling openings are counterpoints to the regularity of the obelisk-inspired columns.
