Eatery design dovetails with overall center style

Architecture, like any art, is a balancing act.

Need a reminder? Watch the construction over the next few months of Cortina Ristorante, a restaurant in Summit Sierra.

Designed by the team at Carlin Williams Architect of Reno, the restaurant balances the desires of the restaurant owner with the hopes of an architectural team that wants to do good work and the requirements of a property owner that wants to control the appearance of a shopping center.

And it needs to be done by Thanksgiving.

The 6,930-square-foot restaurant is owned by Gianni Chiloiro. He's the president of a Sausalito-based chain of four casual restaurants known as Pasta? in northern California, and began looking around Reno for a restaurant location shortly after he purchased a second home at Somersett a couple of years ago.

He settled on a location at Summit Sierra, the newly opened center at Mount Rose Highway and Highway 395.

But the size of the restaurant, Chiloiro says, felt too big for another Pasta? location. And the demographics of south Reno encouraged him to try something slightly upmarket from the moderately priced Pasta? restaurants.

Enter Carlin Williams, which was given nearly a blank slate upon which to begin its architectural work.

The biggest limitation: Staying within the architectural standards established by Bayer Properties, the owner of Summit Sierra.

The standards, for instance, provide a palette of colors from which designers can choose, says Larry Hunt, the manager of Summit Sierra. They also provide provide guidance about exterior materials that fit.

Architect Carlin Williams picked up the colors from the shopping center, but muted them a bit. A curving roofline at the restaurant reflects similar curves elsewhere in the center. So does a metal roof. Steel trellises covered with ivy further blend the restaurant into the center.

Charles Kelley, another architect with the firm, says the restaurant's interior will feature refined finishes and an open kitchen so patrons can watch the preparation of their meals.

Chiloiro, says Kelley, made the architectural work relatively easy.

"He's committed to doing a nice project. That always makes our job easier," he says.

On the other hand, one desire by Chiloiro a pre-Thanksgiving opening for the restaurant pushed architect and builders alike.

The first meeting to discuss the architecture and construction, Williams says, came shortly before Christmas. The architects kept close track of the paperwork to keep it moving through City Hall.

Pinecrest Development won a competitive bid and is general contractor of the project.

"It's in everyone's best interest to work as quickly as you can," Williams says of the project's schedule.