Interior of La Fonda del Sol Restaurant Design

"As the longtime design director of Herman Miller’s textile division, Girard is best known for softening the severity of modernism with his aptitude for color, pattern, and humor. Over the course of his career, he designed three restaurants. The first, La Fonda del Sol (1960–1971) had been the most sophisticated “theme restaurant” New Yorkers have seen up to that point. Celebrated by foodies and architecture critics alike, Girard’s festive 365-seat Latin American dreamscape in the Time & Life building included an actual adobe house, an open grill framed by a flamboyant typographic wall, a myriad of folk art tableaux, and a sensational 11-foot brass sun whose parts moved with the help of an overhead fan."—https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/alexander-girard-restaurant-design