ECCO ULTRA LOUNGE
VENUEVENUE
HOLLYWOOD
USA
Wing
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In exclusive interviews with leading US club designer Beau Robb large-scale productions. It was not unusual to spend as much on a
and award-winning sound engineer, Joe Lodi, Jimmie Wing gets single night event for say a car company, or a game console launch,
the full story on Ecco Ultra lounge, one of America’s first venues as some clubs spend for their entire build out.”
with a dedicated ecological theme... He got his club-designing break when LA based club developers,
SBE, asked him to redesign Shelter in LA. Having worked in and
Beau Robb’s background in clubbing harks back to his Sydney, around clubs since he was 18-years-old, he intuitively knows what
Australia, days in the 1980s, where he was a popular and ever- works and what doesn’t. To this day, he still goes out dancing at
enthusiastic member of Sydney’s own version of London’s least once a week, so, unlike many of his design contemporaries,
legendary Blitz Kids. Robb and many of his friends made the Beau Robb understands the impact of club design from the
journey to California, but he was one of the select few who perspective of an active patron.
managed to make a name for himself in the city of angels and now Just as he had finished designing Area (yet another prominent LA
has an established interior design practice in West Hollywood. club), he ran into an old friend; none other than Danny B. Danny
How did he become one of the West coast’s leading club loved the design of Area and asked him if he’d be interested in
designers? Robb told mondo*dr: “I actually started as a designer redesigning what was then called Tokio. Ecco Ultra Lounge was
of special events at a time when there really weren’t a lot of clubs the result.
in Los Angeles. In events, you are designing fast and often on tight Instead of the usual ‘intelligent’ lighting, such as scanners and
budgets. You have to have a good imagination and quickly see moving heads, Ecco opted for LEDs. According to Robb: “That
what works and what doesn’t, then apply that to the next design. was determined by the combination of the low ceiling height and
On the other side of the equation, I also got to work with, and compliance requirements of California’s Title 24 Energy Efficiency
understand, light and sound, and to work on some extremely Standards. The treatment also fit the overall design theme of a
066 January / February 2010
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