5280 Home – August 2019

28 | 5280 HOME | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 photography by AARON COLUSSI

At the new Little Man Ice Cream Factory, imbuing

a sense of wonder in frozen-treat enthusiasts

means ditching right angles. (^) • by ANGELA UFHEIL
SWEET SPOT
Denver ice-cream
mogul Paul Tam-
burello likes circles. After
all, ice-cream-machine
paddles trace the endless
form, and scoops of the
cold treat rest sphere-like
in (round) bowls. That’s
why Tamburello, founder
and owner of Little Man
Ice Cream, wanted the
shape to make appear-
ances throughout his
company’s new Sloan’s
Lake headquarters, a
Willy-Wonka-Chocolate-
Factory-esque space that
opened this summer.
“When a child spins in a
circle, she’s lost in space
and time,” Tamburello
says. “We want the kids
in all of us to be wide-
eyed by the possibility of
life when they enter.”
Of course, scooping
ice cream into enticing
globes is a cinch com-
pared to integrating
curves into a right-
angled building. Circles
are a challenge to build,
says architect Ted
Schultz, who was hired to
design the headquarters:
“Circles are an egalitar-
ian, joyful shape, but
bricks and steel aren’t
exactly amenable to
bending.” So, Schultz
was forced to devise
clever ways to integrate
the curves Tambu-
rello envisioned into the
6,000-square-foot rect-
angular space known as
the Factory.
Solution No. 1: The
kitchen’s large circular
window—its rectangular
panes of glass joined by
steel pillars—that calls
to mind a huge, rotating
barber’s pole; the design
draws visitors’ eyes into
an ice-cream laboratory
of sorts, where chefs bus-
ily simmer fresh fruit for
sorbet, temper chocolate
in a copper cauldron, and
pour cream into twirl-
ing, Italian ice-cream
churners. A dry cleaner’s
conveyor belt, outfitted
with buckets, connects
the kitchen and service
counter, allowing chefs
to restock flavors with
the push of a button. And
then there’s the factory’s
most striking space,
where the circle motif
really shines: the counter.
Inspired by Little Man’s
milk-jug-shaped flagship
shop in the Highland
neighborhood—but with
the eye-catching addition
of a marble-ringed round
skylight and exposed
steel hood overhead—the
cylindrical serving space
is where this creative
design really comes, well,
full circle.
littlemanicecream.com
COMMERCIAL
DESIGN
Clockwise from top left:
The circular kitchen; ice-cream
buckets on a conveyor system;
chef Claire Fields makes a deca-
dent sundae; the service counter
28 | 5280 HOME | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 photography by AARON COLUSSI
At the new Little Man Ice Cream Factory, imbuing
a sense of wonder in frozen-treat enthusiasts
meansditchingrightangles.•by ANGELA UFHEIL
SWEET SPOT
Denver ice-cream
mogul Paul Tam-
burello likes circles. After
all, ice-cream-machine
paddles trace the endless
form, and scoops of the
cold treat rest sphere-like
in (round) bowls. That’s
why Tamburello, founder
and owner of Little Man
Ice Cream, wanted the
shape to make appear-
ances throughout his
company’s new Sloan’s
Lake headquarters, a
Willy-Wonka-Chocolate-
Factory-esque space that
opened this summer.
“When a child spins in a
circle, she’s lost in space
and time,” Tamburello
says. “We want the kids
in all of us to be wide-
eyed by the possibility of
life when they enter.”
Of course, scooping
ice cream into enticing
globes is a cinch com-
pared to integrating
curves into a right-
angled building. Circles
are a challenge to build,
says architect Ted
Schultz, who was hired to
design the headquarters:
“Circles are an egalitar-
ian, joyful shape, but
bricks and steel aren’t
exactly amenable to
bending.” So, Schultz
was forced to devise
clever ways to integrate
the curves Tambu-
rello envisioned into the
6,000-square-foot rect-
angular space known as
the Factory.
Solution No. 1: The
kitchen’s large circular
window—its rectangular
panes of glass joined by
steel pillars—that calls
to mind a huge, rotating
barber’s pole; the design
draws visitors’ eyes into
an ice-cream laboratory
of sorts, where chefs bus-
ily simmer fresh fruit for
sorbet, temper chocolate
in a copper cauldron, and
pour cream into twirl-
ing, Italian ice-cream
churners. A dry cleaner’s
conveyor belt, outfitted
with buckets, connects
the kitchen and service
counter, allowing chefs
to restock flavors with
the push of a button. And
then there’s the factory’s
most striking space,
where the circle motif
really shines: the counter.
Inspired by Little Man’s
milk-jug-shaped flagship
shop in the Highland
neighborhood—but with
the eye-catching addition
of a marble-ringed round
skylight and exposed
steel hood overhead—the
cylindrical serving space
is where this creative
design really comes, well,
full circle.
littlemanicecream.com
COMMERCIAL
DESIGN
Clockwise from top left:
The circular kitchen; ice-cream
buckets on a conveyor system;
chef Claire Fields makes a deca-
dent sundae; the service counter