For a bachelor client's 1,100-square-foot pad, Elizabeth Whittaker designed several cool details, like this rolling bar-cum-dining table. “It's only about 30 inches wide, which is narrow for a dining table, but it works,” says the principal of Boston-based Merge Architects. What it lacks in width the bar makes up for in length: It spans 9 feet.
A steel column anchors the concrete bar as it rolls into place on bright red industrial casters. A reclaimed cedar beam (matching the ceiling rafters) supports the concrete tabletop by linking the column to a solid steel side leg opposite. And a cut-out in the oversized kitchen island accepts the bar as it rolls out of the way and transforms into a raised sitting area.
Whittaker credits the fabricators who worked in close concert to bring her design to fruition: contractor and carpenter Gary Haley of Wakefield, Mass.; metalwork by Studio F Kia in Boston; and concrete by Ray Iocabacci of Rowley, Mass. “Just this one piece involved all of the main trades for the entire project,” she explains.
