Many people have asked me about the genesis for the beer can wall at our latest project, B Spot.  They want to know 'how many cans are up there?', or 'where did you find them all?', or 'how did you install them?'.  So I thought I would use this opportunity to provide a little glimpse of how the wall came to be.

During the conceptual stages of development for B Spot, Liz Symon said that she wanted Michael to have a beer can collection in his new restaurant.  Well, I took that as a challenge.  Anybody can build a shelf and line up a row of cans, I thought.  But this is a Michael Symon restaurant, and if we're going to put a beer can collection in his burger joint, it's got to be creative, well executed and larger than life; like Michael's food. 

I knew during the conceptual development of the project that the architectiure of the space would provide for a focal wall that provided a huge opportunity to create something dramatic.  It would be the first thing that diners would see when they approached the restaurant and would be front and center as they entered the space.  It was the perfect opportunity to set the tone for this Michael Symon experience and I knew that it needed to be huge.  As I developed the design of the space, I began to sketch from the point of view of the front door and developed the idea of a mosaic wall of beer cans.  Seeing as we were going to be 'stacking' these cans, and that they would be incredibly colorful and reflective, I knew we could create more than a random wall of texture.  Much like playing with a variety of Lego blocks, I experimented with creating random geometric patterns, subtle gradients, etc.  I wasn't sure what that image would be and was struggling to find the right image to create until Liz showed me the first sketches of the logo development and it became obvious that it needed to be the 'B' (yes, there is a subtle '13' to the mark as well).. 

Liz and the rest of the team loved the idea.  Now we had to build it.  The rest of the wall wanted to 'go away' so that the can feature would 'pop'.  It also didn't want to feel restrained so I needed to make sure that the height of it broke the plane of the adjacent soffit to the left and the window header to the right.  I planned the space to have a banquette below the feature so the bottom of the cans wouldn't even begin until well over 54" off the floor.  This would help create the height I wanted.  I detailed the wall with an opening that was 8' high x 16' wide and about 4" deep.  I had Blair finish the back of the opening with 3/4" o.s.b. and painted the entire recess black.  That was the easy part though.  Now I needed to find a 'few hundred' beer cans, and I knew that I wanted them to be vintage.  Not realizing how many cans I would ACTUALLY require, I began to ask around.  Sam Lindsley (Symon's Operations Manager) had a collection of several hundred that he donated to the cause and as the project moved along, others offered up 50 here and 50 there.  It wasn't until I laid the entire wall out on a grid, measured one beer can, and did the calculations to find how many cans would be required that I realized that I needed 1,750 total.  You've GOT to be kidding me, I thought.  Thank goodness for eBay... It turns out that beer cans are fairly available and are quite reasonable.  I began bidding on numerous collections and within a month's time, I had almost 2,000 cans in my studio workshop.

Come assembly time, I consulted with several colleagues regarding the best way to execute the final piece.  I decided to mount the cans to a substrate of masonite (8 - 4'x4' sheets) using construction adhesive.  However, I needed to find a way to lay them all out and be able to rearrange them once all in place to create the logo.  I asked Kat to take on the task of sorting the cans by color and pulling all of the red and white cans aside.  I wanted the "B" to be red but it was Kat that suggested that we would need the white halo surrounding them for the logo to really pop.  Good call on her part.

We cut strips of foam core to build a shallow frame around the masonite sheets and created a large easel against the wall of the shop.  This would allow us to look at the wall vertically without all of the cans tipping forward.  It worked like a charm and once we worked the kinks out of the system, the composition actually came together very quickly.  We made several adjustments to the proportion of the 'B' and once we were satisfied with the final layout, we carefully laid the panels back down on the floor and began to glue.

Jill and I spent a good 12 hours each on our hands and knees as we went through 2 cases of liquid nails securing all of the cans in place.  This process was simple, yet tedious.  We needed to keep several of the cans loose so that once we lifted the panels in to place, we could screw the masonite to the plywood surface of the recess and then glue in the final cans in place to cover the screws.  We let the panels dry for a good week and then got everything to the site for install.   As any designer knows, some of the most stressful times of a project are during install.  You just never know if things will look as good in reality as you planned on paper.  I knew I measured the opening at the restaurant 4 or 5 different times and was fairly positive that everything would go smoothly but until things were in place, I was a bit on edge.  On the morning of install, Lapper, Jeff and I unwrapped everything and laid the 8 panels out on the floor of the restaurant.  We took one final measurement and much to my relief, everything appeared as if it would fit perfectly.  Lapper and Jeff manned the ladders and within an hour we had all 8 panels secured in place.

The final effect was just as expected.  The cans create a dynamic texture and a conversation piece within the space.  It is really entertaining to watch people point out their favorite cans.  Many people tell me their brand of choice, what their father drank, or what was popular on campus when they were in college.