Clicklad project spotlight, West Hollywood, California
Some dining rooms are built around a view. At SUSHISAMBA West Hollywood, the room is built around the sky. The restaurant’s signature feature is a fully operable roof that opens the dining room to the open air, and beneath it a wood-look aluminum shade facade from Clicklad turns all that light into warm, slatted shadow.
The West Hollywood location is SUSHISAMBA’s second in the United States, known for its Japanese and Brazilian fusion. Clicklad supplied the facade components. Our installation partner Sunset Park Construction built the interior shade facade and the retractable roof system, coordinating the moving roof with the architectural finish so that the operable parts read as part of the design rather than as equipment.
An operable roof is a tough setting for any ceiling material. When the roof is open, the slats are exposed to direct sun, Southern California heat, wind and the occasional shower. When it is closed, they still have to look like a finished interior ceiling over a full dining room. Natural timber would need regular refinishing in those conditions, and it can move, check and fade as moisture and temperature swing.
Wood-look aluminum gives the room the warmth of timber without those maintenance cycles. The profiles stay straight, the finish holds its color under UV, and the material is non-combustible, which matters in a busy restaurant with a full kitchen.
The slats run in long, repeated lines across the dining room. During the day they cut the sunlight into bands that move across the floor, the booths and the bar as the hours pass. At night, with the roof closed and the room lit from inside, the same lines give the ceiling a calm, ordered texture above a deliberately bold interior of orange banquettes, painted murals and planting.
Because every profile clicks onto a concealed rail, the spacing stays consistent across the whole ceiling plane, including around the roof structure, lighting and services. No fixings show on the finished face.
The retractable roof is the room’s defining move: the restaurant goes from an enclosed dining room to an open-air terrace above West Hollywood. Sunset Park Construction delivered the roof system and the shade facade together, so the two were planned as one assembly from the start. That coordination is what lets the shade ceiling sit cleanly beneath a structure that moves.
| Factor | Timber slats | Wood-look aluminum slats |
|---|---|---|
| Sun and weather | Fades, checks and moves with moisture | Dimensionally stable, UV-resistant finish |
| Upkeep | Periodic sanding and refinishing | Occasional cleaning |
| Fire | Combustible | Non-combustible base material |
| Consistency | Varies board to board | Uniform profiles and spacing on a click rail |
Restaurants, hotels, rooftops and courtyards all ask the same thing of a ceiling: warmth, a clean finish and almost no maintenance. If you are working on one, talk to our team about profiles, finishes and rail layout, or browse more work in our project galleries.
Clicklad supplied the wood-look aluminum components for the interior shade facade. Sunset Park Construction installed the facade and delivered the retractable roof system.
Yes. Aluminum doesn’t rot, warp or attract pests, and the finish is made to hold its color in sunlight, so it suits ceilings that are exposed to the weather some of the time. Each project’s support, drainage and fixing details should be reviewed for its own conditions.
The profiles click onto a supporting rail, which keeps the spacing even and hides the attachment from view on the finished face.
In July 2026 a newly built home on Ocean Boulevard sold for $48.5 million, believed to be the highest residential sale in Corona del Mar. Its upper floor is wrapped in Clicklad wood-look aluminum slats.
A pergola is the one structure people build for pleasure and then fight to keep. The wood version looks beautiful the first summer, then the California sun gets to it.
The soffit is the part of a building almost nobody thinks about until it fails.
