Philadelphia, PA – May 28, 2003 – Restaurants are not usually considered artistic landmarks, but in Philadelphia, that is about to change. On Wednesday, June 11, at 8:30pm, Joseph Varalli, owner of and the creative force behind two of the city's most successful dining establishments, Upstares at Varalli and Sotto Varalli, located at 231 Broad Street along Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts, will dramatically alter the evening landscape with the unveiling and lighting of one of the largest architectural glass fusion mosaic projects ever created in America.
Produced by a team of area artists and artisans that includes Greg Emore, of Geronimo Co., who, with painter Gibbs Conner, designed the mosaic; Anura Karthik (Kar) Vivekananthan, owner of Venus Aural Visual, who designed and produced the lighting and movement effects; and Ken Mott, of Visionary Fusion Studios/The Glass Works, Inc., which designs and manufactures some of the largest, innovative fused glass panels for architectural applications in the country, who fulfilled the late glass artist Steve Stormer's vision, the project took 16 months to complete, and involved the installation of 34 fused glass panels comprised of 3,344 pieces of opaque cut glass, in the transit windows surrounding the perimeter of each restaurant.
Providing a ground-breaking, dramatic new focal point in the center of Philadelphia's cultural corridor, across the street from the 146-year-old Academy of Music and the new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts with its stunning glass roof, the mosaic produces an arresting and ever-shifting visual experience, and an iridescent play of pointillist color and light both inside and outside that blends texture and mood, art and functionality in a way that creates a unique experience of the senses.
The marriage of food and atmosphere, art and lifestyle, interior and exterior, was what inspired Mr. Varalli to commission the mosaic. An entrepreneur who believes in melding culinary and visual artistry to create a sensory, memorable experience, Varalli, who opened Upstares at Varalli in 1989 and then Sotto (meaning below or beneath, in Italian), the Avenue's first seafood restaurant, ten years later with his brother Ernest, sees the Avenue of the Arts itself and Philadelphia's cultural community as an extension -- and integral part of – his restaurants.
In 1994, the renovation of his Northern Italian trattoria, Upstares at Varalli, included installing a second dining room / gallery featuring the mixed-media photographs of artist Edward Matalon and commissioning three 13ft x 7ft oil on canvas paintings by artist Peter Gregorio of the great opera houses of the world – with the window framing and overlooking the Academy of Music as the fourth. With Sotto, he installed 4 large waterwalls of hand-sculpted glass tile and commissioned the creation of a 34ft x 3ft hand-crafted giant iridescent squid, designed and created by artist Greg Emore and Geronimo Co., mounted into a ceiling soffit covered in hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind recycled glass tiles, chosen because of their water-like surfaces.
Still, until now, the decor, the menus and the art assembled in Upstares at Varalli and Sotto Varalli have been
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2-2-2-2 Ave of Arts Gets New Landmark with Installation of Glass Fusion Mosaic at Varalli
dissimilar to each other. With the installation of the glass mosaic, and a new merging of menus, both restaurants will be inextricably tied together for the first time. Nevertheless, the mosaic expresses the nature and origin of the two separate restaurants through the use of color: Upstares’ earth-tone palette of golds, greens and reds reflecting the bounty of the earth – grains, vegetables, fruits; while Sotto’s water palette of blues and greens reflects the richness of the seas.
"The mosaic provides not only a visible and artistic connection between both restaurants, and between the restaurants and the cultural artistry along the Avenue, but it presents a projection, beyond the walls -- of our restaurants and the elements within that affect the dining experience and senses -- from the cuisine to the art work, design and music," says Mr. Varalli. "I see it as a metaphor for timelessness. Think back to the extraordinary mosaics found in the ruins of ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. Now combine them with state-of the art electronics and lighting, and a work of art is created that is as timeless and ever-changing as our restaurants are."
Integrating color, texture and mood, reflected both inside and outside, with the change of lighting and movement, the piece turns architecture into art form, blending exterior and interior. As complex as its design is fascinating, the process of creating the mosaic involved a diverse team of people, companies and skills that ran from one end of the U.S. to the other.
The challenges were numerous: what kind of glass to use and where to get it; where to find the best palette of colors; how to fuse the panels and where to find a large enough kiln; how to create the lighting effects, etc. Glass is a highly individualistic product – every piece has its own characteristics; every manufacturer its own recipe. Consequently, when heated or fired, each piece will expand and contract at different rates, known as the co-efficient of expansion. Fusing – the heat bonding of glasses at high temperatures (above 1450ºF), means that compatibility is critical when combining multiple glasses together into one piece in a kiln. Two glasses are said to be compatible if, after fusing and cooling to room temperature, they are free of undue stress that would lead to cracking.
Oregon-based Bullseye Manufacturing, one of only ten companies in the U.S. that produce fusible glass, and the pioneering world leader in large scale fused glass for panels and windows, was chosen as the source for both the clear and colored glass. Since regular glass doesn't absorb light, it was the late glass artist Steve Stormer, who hit on the idea of using opaque colored glass, which would both reflect and absorb light. The fusing process was then turned over to Ken Mott of Philadelphia's Visionary Fusion Studios, who has one of the largest kilns in the country, capable of fusing panels over 100 inches in length. The panels of cutting color were fused onto overlapping clear glass panels cut to size, and fired at 1535ºF for 15 minutes. Taking 6 to 8 hours to reach the firing temp, the glass, which emerges as one piece, must sit for ten hours to cool.
Creating the perception of movement in the mosaic using light was determined after months of research and experimentation, and it is believed that this is the first time such a process has been used with a glass installation. Starting with Greg Emore and Steve Stormer's design concept of earth and water, and seeking movement and versatile color control, Kar Vivekananthan of Venus Aural Visual chose the icove from Color Kinetics – a "color mixing" LED technology that allows separate control over each 6" or 1 ft panel section. Each linear section of icove is a row of Red, Green and Blue LEDs (light-emitting diodes), and each piece of the icove has the capability to produce 16.7 million different colors, with countless programming options. The icove allowed the ability to control exactly which colors to emit and customize the effects on each panel. In short, by changing intensity from foot to foot, he was able to create the illusion of water passing through the mosaic, and virtual "waves" of color and light passing through the earth. The technology will also allow the capability to create different theme effects for special events and holidays.
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3-3-3-3 Ave of Arts Gets New Landmark with Installation of Glass Fusion Mosaic at Varalli
With color, texture, and light, Varalli has created a new signpost for Philadelphia – an eye-catching, fascinating and ever-changing beacon that is both art and architecture, and brings the artistry and technology of cutting-edge glass artistry to Philadelphia's cultural community in a brand new way.
A native of Northeast Philadelphia, Greg Emore, president of the Northern Liberties-based Geronimo Co., has created landmark projects across the globe, including Captain Emo at EuroDisney, the Tower of Terror at Disneyworld in Orlando, Toon Town in Los Angeles and Tokyo, and a 16ft. Lenin for the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas. Noted for his work in the film industry and for Disney, Emore has also handled projects locally for restaurants such as Sotto, Buddakan and Continental, as well as such national projects as the Flintstones Movie, the MTV Movie Awards, Busch Gardens and many others.
Venus Aural Visual is a full service sound and visual systems design, build and installation company that handles projects in large-scale nightclubs, restaurants, houses of worship, conference facilities, public and private schools; as well as personal residences. In addition to such renowned Philadelphia restaurants and clubs including Buddakan, Trust, Tangerine, POD, Globar and Fluid Nightclub, Venus has also been subcontracted by Provision Productions, Inc., for the Winterthur Museum, and by Philadelphia Sound Productions and Steve Dash/Phazon for Wilmington Trust Bank in Delaware, Twilo in New York, Womb and Zepp Tokyo in Japan, Crobar Nightclub in South Beach, Miami and Home Nightclub in London.
Visionary Fusion Studios / The Glass Works, Inc. designs and manufactures innovative large-scale fused glass panels for architectural applications. With advanced technology, water-jet cutting and laminating capabilities, they produce cutting-edge designs for private, commercial and corporate clients. With a current kiln at 102x56 inches, already one of the largest in the country, they are in process of building a yet larger oven, measuring 114x66.
Born in Collingdale, PA a suburb of Philadelphia, Joseph Varalli spent most of his youth in the Chaddsford/Unionville area, attending the Chaddsford Unionville schools before moving to Westport, Connecticut. A graduate of the University of Bridgeport (CT) in Business Administration and Industrial Relations, who also spent two years at Johnson and Wales Culinary Institute in Providence, RI studying hotel/restaurant management, Mr. Varalli returned to Philadelphia in 1987, and at the age of 25 opened his first restaurant, Upstares at Varalli, with his brother, Ernest. It was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream since taking his first job in the restaurant business at the age of 13, as a dishwasher at the Chadds Ford Inn.
Wanting to provide a competitively-priced alternative to the Philadelphia theatre crowd and dining public, Varalli broke new ground immediately -- prior to the opening of Upstares at Varalli in 1989, no second floor restaurant had ever been successful in Philadelphia. Forward-thinking even then, Varalli also negotiated the rights for all additional spaces in the building as leases expired, which ultimately allowed him to expand and open Sotto in the downstairs space ten years later. Inspired by his love of food as well as art and nature, and his commitment to providing a unique, completely sensory atmosphere in addition to competitive pricing and consistent quality service, Joe Varalli has made his restaurants more than just a place to go for lunch or dinner. With innovation, drive and creativity, he has melded them into the cultural landscape, and made them artistic destinations all on their own.
Upstares at Varalli and Sotto varalli are located on the northeast corner of Broad & Locust Streets, along Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts, and open 7 days a week. For more information about Varalli's new landmark fused glass mosaic project, please call Nina Zucker Associates at 610.667.0706.
