A shimmering bento box Shibuya brings the spirit of Tokyo to Las Vegas By Jessie Bove, Associate...

Shibuya, which opened in July 2004 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, is a restaurant that takes its name from Tokyo's central business district of Shibuya Ward. This district surrounds one of Tokyo's busiest railway stations, Shibuya Station, and is considered a fashion center and nightlife hot spot, particularly for young people in Japan.

This essence of Tokyo is what Toronto-based design firm Yabu Pushelberg wanted to capture in their design for Shibuya restaurant—fast-paced style, colorful lights and coy anime images incorporated into a sophisticated Japanese restaurant. Color and texture are combined to show the dichotomies of modern life and the intensity of big cities.

"In Tokyo, you find an intense degree of layering—cars, people, buildings, lights and signage—and there are lots of applied surfaces in Japanese design," says Glenn Pushelberg, principal of Yabu Pushelberg. "We wanted to evoke that same kind of layering in the design of Shibuya."

The design concept begins at the restaurant's entrance, where a rose-colored glassfront etched with exaggerated bar codes blends old-world Japanese elegance with new-world Tokyo chic. "Shibuya has a sophisticated look that still has a sense of fun," Pushelberg adds. Once guests enter, they are greeted by a 50-ft. marble sushi bar, colored in a candied mauve and pink. Behind the bar, a video wall creates a kaleidoscopic effect with one-way mirror boxes in front of TV monitors that display various images and colors.

The main dining room, which Pushelberg lightheartedly refers to as the "Bento Box," resembles an illuminated glass box. The semi-private dining room is divided by a series of circular pink glass screens, with cascading ribbons of bentwood suspended from the ceiling. "This series of cubicles glow from a perimeter of an illuminated screen," Pushelberg says. "The screen is made from random-cut pine with the sap creating a gorgeous, warm orange glow. The wood-carved fixtures, created by artist Dennis Lin, randomly and beautifully disperse light." An extension of the Bento Box room is the Tepinyaki room, a grill area featuring pink stainless steel canopies suspended overhead.

Mary Mark, senior project manager, Yabu Pushelberg, says the end result of the design process, which took three months, was innovative, artistic and dramatic. First-time visitors at the restaurant will be inspired, she says.