warwick LA #9 | 2017
The world we built
Owned by Jeffrey Best & JT Torregiani, Warwick (formerly Club L), has been a staple of Los Angeles nightlife since it first opened it’s doors in October of 2013.
Most nightclubs in Los Angeles don’t stay in business past 5 years, but Warwick is different. It has it’s own breed of shapeshifter magic in it’s ever-changing, always different, bi-annual redesign
For it’s 9th redesign (branded as Warwick #9), Jeffrey Best asked us to come up with a concept that was dark, elegant, romantic, and timeless.
We wanted to capture the look and feel of classic French antiquity. We looked to the Palace of Versailles and pre-revolution France for inspiration, and sought out the defining baroque art of the time.
Concept and ideation
It started with a botched reference to “let them eat cake”, and my own personal excitement about the upcoming Games of Thrones season 7 premiere.
As a massive fan of all things fantasy, I had already started conceptualizing what a Warwick design based in a mediaval castle would look like. However,, knowing the high-brow clientele the nightclub draws, it was clear we would need mroe than just “cool castle vibes”.
The above mentioned botched reference gave us the idea to base the creative around a gaudy, Marie Antoinette excess. We stuck to a color palette of black, white, gold, and an old-world olive green.
Much of the research phase revolved around finding era-appropriate artworks that featured myths about desire, like Paris and the Golden Apple or the tale of Eros and Psyche.
It was always a balance to keep the interior both rooted in antiquity, but with an undercurrent of excess.
Fabrication and scenic
From day one, I knew we needed armored knights to flank the DJ Booth. Even if you’re not a fan of medieval history or stories of King Arthur…that is just such a statement. I mean, who has knights guarding their DJ at a nightclub? To create the guardians, we found pre-fabricated, life-sized statues, and added to them using sculpted foam.
In order to keep the “eros” alive in the club, we also scoured the prop houses for faux-marble statues of Venus, Penelope, and Helen of Troy. We were able to find both life-size statues and busts that were then mounted or bolted to the interior.
We used about 200 linear feet of brick wall facade, and hung 45 unique, individual art pieces over the course of seven days.
Behind the DJ Booth, we found a tapestry replica depicting the “bachanalia”, a festival of worship and intoxication to honor the Olympian god Dinoysus.
And of course, we bought 10x new, 40-bulb chandeliers to hang throughout the nightclub. Maybe the most time consuming and trickiest of the entire install - the chandeliers were the biggest hit of all!
end result
Warwick’s 9th redesign officially opened in March of 2017. The ownership conventionally does a full redesign every 6 months.
Warwick 9 lasted until April of 2019 - over 2 years later. Our design was featured on The Bachelorette, in a T.I. music video, and on the cover of Billboard magazine.
The chandeliers, stage drapes, and fireplaces are still the same ones from our redesign...more than 6 years later.
Now in it’s 11th incarnation, Warwick is still one of the longest-running nightclubs in Los Angeles.
Creative Design: Paladin Creative | Event Production: Best Events | Venue: Warwick LA
