Posted photo for other GWers to view

That's a cooktop and vent hood between the sink and the wall oven, and dishwasher facing to the left of the sink?It looks like the space you'll be creating is going to turn into one of the main prep areas. I'd be thinking about what you want to do with that countertop, and what you could put in that shelf that would help you do exactly those things.

An open shelf there would be most practical, though in theory you could replace the refrigerator cab doors with full-height doors to create a new cabinet that looks very normal outside and only slightly weird inside.

Not sure whether the brick fixture includes shelving that makes this redundant but my first instinct would be a cookbooks shelf, or a slightly-decorative useful items shelf (like mixing bowls or your primary dinnerware).
Microwave shelf might work, but unless you had a huge honking MW there would be extra space. MW + a few favorite cookbooks?
Are you a coffee drinker? Maybe you have the coffeemaker on the countertop and the shelf full of mugs and accessories.
Personally I'm not big on wine racks; while I drink wine, I don't store much of it. But maybe you do. All kitchen decisions start with "Know Thyself".

the brick thing....is removal happening? something should happen. I'd remove it, and add wall to the left of it, thereby giving some wall space on the kitchen side for pantry/microwave center/etc,and it would block the visuals of seeing straight thru to garage door all the time. If the brick must stay-capture it with wall from floor to ceiling and do the cabs/counter of your choice on kitchen side.You'd have split access into kitchen,but gain something with storage on the kitchen side of this.

Empet, you're correct on the existing layout. We're thinking along the same lines. I'm really not big on wine racks either but just wanted to blend the cabinet well.

Thanks for responding

Herbflavor, I too thought the brick planter had to go, but my talented designer friend said it's his favorite part of the house!

He's convinced me to make it part of the island. The top will have granite at its 48" height. The other side is the same as the side you see in the picture except it has an electrical outlet. We'll drop down to normal counter top height (36") and make it part of a large island.

This ought to be interesting.

My designer friend has also talked me into starting over with new cabinets instead of reusing and modifying the existing ones.

We're putting in Ikea Nexus brown/black cabinets in a much different layout.

Thank you Tmy_Jax for posting the pix. I didn't know how.