STYLE : ARCHITECTURE : Ribbed Joint

At Nicola, a new restaurant at the corner of Figueroa and Wilshire, the ribs are overhead, not on the plate. Springy steel bars define the terrace area within the lofty glass-and-granite atrium of the Sanwa Bank tower. Inside, blond wood ribs shoot up and over diners, creating intimate enclosures. Green-stained plywood chairs surround wood-topped steel tables. Cocoa matting evokes a carpet of dry leaves in a forest. The look is simultaneously comforting and exciting.

“We wanted design that works as well in 30 years as it does today,” says owner-chef Larry Nicola, who commissioned an old friend, Michael Rotondi. As a partner in Morphosis, Rotondi helped design Nicola’s first restaurant 13 years ago in Silver Lake; later, the firm won acclaim for 72 Market St., Angeli Caffe and Kate Mantilini. Rotondi, however, wanted to be known for other things: “I wouldn’t have done another (restaurant), but with mutual trust, you can achieve something surprising.”

As director of the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Rotondi has always nurtured adventurous talent. He now has his own firm, ROTOndi, with partner Clark Stevens and a new companion, designer April Greiman. And Nicola has a warmth and sensuality missing from the earlier work. The restaurant was a collaboration with project architect Brian Reiff, Rotondi’s brother John, who served as contractor, and Greiman, who worked on colors, materials and graphics. Greiman brought in industrial designer Lisa Krohn, who fashioned the fabric-covered lamps that swoop down from above.

The result is architecture that is like the food: simple, natural materials used in unexpected ways, slowly unfolding their complexities.