Restaurant Lighting

Today I visited the Chipotle Mexican restaurant located at 4930 W. Broad St., across from the Willow Lawn shopping center. It is approximately 12pm. The main entrance to the restaurant is located on the west wall, facing 50th Street, while the south wall with the most windows, faces south, towards W. Broad.

As I enter the space I notice a strong contrast between the back of the restaurant (to my left) and the front of the restaurant (to my right), in terms of lighting. It is obvious that the building had been designed with the user in mind in the sense that the front of the restaurant is where customers sit and eat, while the back of the restaurant is for the kitchen, storage, and restrooms. More privacy is needed in the latter areas and so less natural light has been provided there. The contrast between the naturally lit areas and the artificially lit areas is difficult for my eye to adjust to at first. The reason is because my right eye is adjusting to a larger amount of natural light flooding the space while the other is adjusting to a darker areas in the back. In addition, the use of materials such as corrugated metal and air ducts, which have a high reflectance value and therefore reflects a lot of light back into the space, adds to the juxtaposition of the contrast between light and dark, and creates a lot of glare. The intensity of the natural light entering the space from the south wall is very intense and the color of the light is white.

Chipotle's signature design approach has an industrial feel to it. Often, the mechanics of a building are left exposed and painted red so occupants can see air ducts, pipes, and ventilation systems that would normally be hidden by acoustical ceiling panels. As a part of this design scheme, Chipotle has also chosen to use small, industrial pendent lights. There is also a small amount of wall lighting to illuminate artwork. With the dark color red on the majority of the walls and on the ceiling, the small pendent lights are not sufficient for lighting the space adequately. With such an emphasis on the view along the south-facing wall, it would be nice to let natural light into the space in other ways, such as, through the use of solar tubes, saw tooths, or even skylights. This would be a nice addition to the back of the restaurant. It would allow employees to enjoy some of the benefits of natural light, such as increased productivity, while maintaining privacy in the back of the restaurant.

L. Miller