American Bar
(6 vote, 80.00% worth checking out)
Location:
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Kärntner Straße 10
Vienna
1010 Innere Stadt
Austria
coordinates: 48.2073135,16.3712273
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Building names(s): American Bar / Loos Bar
Architect/Designer: Adolf Loos
Images: add an image <== click Here
Show on map & checkout the other sites nearby Kärntner Straße 10
Vienna
1010 Innere Stadt
Austria
coordinates: 48.2073135,16.3712273
open coordinates in google maps
open coordinates in apple map
Building names(s): American Bar / Loos Bar
Architect/Designer: Adolf Loos
Images: add an image <== click Here
Completion date: 1908
function(s): bar
Getting there: U1, U3: Stephansplatz, Bus 3A: Plankengasse
Opening hours: Thu – Sat noon – 5 am, Sun – Wed noon – 4 am
website: www.loosbar.at
2 comments/reviews
Galinsky says:
Mar 23, 2009
This small bar, just off the Kärntner Strasse in central Vienna, show Loos’ combination of simple, unadorned forms with opulent materials and fine, simple detailing to give a modern, rich impression.
Mirrors covering the whole width of the wall above the bar, and the parallel wall opposite, mulitplies the apparent size of the small room, giving the image of an array of seaminlgy freestanding columns. The simple geometry of the columns and joists in this image matches that in Loos’s House on Michaelerplatz of the same period.
Seating is in small booths around three backlit tables, which glow white in the dark, yellowish brown atmosphere of the bar.
Since the bar is so small, there is room only for real customers, not architectural tourists, so the best approach is to become a customer. Photography is not welcomed.
vienna unlike says:
Mar 23, 2009
Arguing for the reduction of architecture to its essentials and the use of the finest material instead to suggest sensuality, Loos layered the ceilings, walls and floors with black onyx and dark marble and is refined by sleek brass fittings.
On most evenings, young media and arty types squeeze in to enjoy “American-style” cocktails (read: fancy and high potency). Loos referred to the bar as “American” after having resided in the United States. Many Americans, however, would be bewildered at the comparison after witnessing the cramped smoke-filled room.