June 23rd, 2024 12:00am
While Oliver's serves cocktails in the original Polynesian Dairy Queen glassware, ALINE dishes out architectural design details to Iconic Life of the recreation of one of South Scottsdale's most historic mid-century buildings.
What was once the world’s first polynesian Dairy Queen is now Oliver’s, an elevated modern American restaurant that integrates the ICONIC building’s rich history and architecture with a fresh, modern design.
Oliver’s is a testament to the beauty that comes from the restoration of the old. The old Dairy Queens history vibrates through the restaurant’s atmosphere, from the memorabilia wall that incites nostalgia and pays homage to the original Dairy Queen, to the unique cantilevered roof, which acts as the anchor that holds the character of the original building to the swanky, modern restaurant Oliver’s is.
The restoration of this historic landmark wouldn’t have been possible without the exemplary architectural team at ALINE Architecture or the interior design team at Social Design Studio who breathed a new life into this aesthetic fixer upper. 
“We needed to expand the building because it was only 1,000 square feet,” Brian Krob, principal architect at ALINE Architecture, says. “We wanted to celebrate the building in and of itself, but also have the expanded section to have its own character that tied into the original Polynesian section.”
The transportation of an old building is no easy feat. To get the original Dairy Queen to where it is today, the architectural team had the task of disassembling the building, transporting it to its new location, and reassembling the building while also adding restorative properties and elements.
“We had to investigate and figure out the way it was constructed and recreate that.” Brian Laubenthal, principal architect at ALINE Architecture, says.
“The building was older and forgotten so it needed a lot of love,” Krob adds. “Structural codes are also not the same as they were in the 60s. We made the building stronger with better connections but preserved the character. Another thing that we really wanted to showcase was the high ceiling that came with the cantilevered roof. The original Dairy Queen had a ceiling, which hid the interior of the 30-foot tall roof, so we wanted to make sure people saw that.”
Read the full article by Nakayla Shakespeare for Iconic Life here
Located within: News.
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