Scottie's Deli

2,100sf restaurant in Oklahoma City.

Status: Complete

Oklahoma City, situated roughly midway between Los Angeles and New York by rail, has a unique history as a warehousing hub for Hollywood films. The city’s Film Row district served as a key distribution point where trains unloaded film reels for the Midwest during the era before digital media, when films were physically projected on film reels.

As a result, Oklahoma City theaters often premiered new films before any other city in the Midwest. The Tower Theater in Midtown was the premier venue for these new releases. Recently redeveloped, it now offers commercial space for rent. The client, inspired by traditional Oklahoma delis, provided photos that fueled their passion for becoming a restaurateur. We aimed to incorporate this historical imagery into the building’s material.

Using a workflow across various software platforms and a packing algorithm, every image of a deli sign ever uploaded to Flickr was gathered. Images were then arranged based on our criteria for size and arrangement. This interlocking system can be organized by size, location, or color. The goal was to sift through all the possibilities to find the optimal fit for each image, creating a unique and historically rich construction material for the restaurant.