This week I got to tour the completed work of one of six medical clinics we designed this past year.  Yes, SIX. It's been a busy year!  This is certainly one of my favorites and it made me think about the unique issues we deal with when designing for the healthcare space.

The typical medical office space we design is around 3,000 square feet & neatly sits within a typical neighborhood retail center. Ideally the space allows for what we call a 'racetrack' design. This allows us to arrange exam rooms & their support spaces around a circular corridor, typically with a health practitioner's office at the center. This promotes visual control and one-way circulation when needed (like this past year when dealing with Covid).

While every healthcare provider is different, we find a general rule of thumb is to have three exam rooms + one consult room per practitioner.  In addition to these spaces, you have the lab, med storage, offices and staff areas to accommodate.  Finally, the practice specialty will dictate the size and number of other spaces. For instance, physical/occupational therapy clinics will require larger shared spaces to house therapy equipment.  For our asthma/allergy center we designed this year, space for pulmonary testing took precedence.  

The south Dallas shopping center at Polk and Ledbetter continues to progress towards the finish line despite the rain. I was on site this morning as the crew tries to finish up the stucco before the next round of storms roll through.  

While there is still a ways to go before we get to see all the landscaping and finished building envelope, one exciting thing happening this week is the addition of parking lot trees.  This huge shopping center was originally built in the 1980s with a vast concrete parking lot which I doubt was ever full. No thought was paid to softening this giant heat island with trees. The lot is regularly used as a cut-through to get from Polk to Ledbetter & then at night as a arena for joy-riding and cutting donuts. 

As part of our infill project, we have broken up the vast concrete with landscaped islands.  The trees arrived this week & already the difference can be felt on this hot & humid morning!

Whoops!  It's been a whole year since last posting. What as year it has been. 

We have managed to keep ourselves safe while continuing to do the work.  We've been busy working on our ground-up retail & healthcare infill project in South Dallas along with several health clinic projects, a coffee shop and a few residential projects.  The main theme over that past year seems to be patience & grace.  With the disrupted work flow, we've all had to adjust.

So to catch up, I'll be sharing a few projects in the days. Weeks?  This is the retail & medical office space we are creating in Dallas. The site is an existing shopping center which was built in the '80s around an anchor grocery store which was never completed.  Our buildings will infill the gaping hole that was left + will revitalize the site: new landscape, lighting, signage, and building canopies.  Can't wait to share more.

I'm excited to share photos of our newly completed design project in a premiere mixed used building standing at the gateway of the Bishop Arts District.  Designed with a sleek + modern aesthetic, Indigo Child, a luxury hair salon, opened its doors earlier this year. Commanding the corner of Zang and Davis, the salon is expansive and flooded with natural light. It was designed with a flexible layout to grow with the business, and with a look that is timeless in its clean simplicity.

We are thankful to be celebrating 5 years of providing professional architectural services under the Thrasher Works banner. The concept of Thrasher Works has evolved over the years.  It all started on 12/12/2012 with the registration of the web domain. At the time, Bart was both concentrating on design/build renovation projects & designing furniture while I was still working for another local architecture firm. I figured Thrasher Works would be my 'out' but there was no solid plan to get there.
Fast forward just three years and we tossed everything into air. Bart began his residential real estate career with David Griffin & Company Realtors while I began practicing architecture full time as Thrasher Works.  
Now we are celebrating 5 successful years!  It's all thanks to our fantastic clients & friends.  It's because of you that we continue to grow and push ourselves to do bigger and better things. Thank you! 

Over the course of my career, I've spent countless hours in the healthcare design arena.  Whether hospital department renovations (my first and still favorite was creating an MRI suite for both in and out-patient use), medical clinics (ranging from imaging, general practice, dental/orthodontics, and dialysis care), or ground-up ambulatory surgery centers, I've always found this particular brand of architectural design the most rewarding.

Therefore, I'm very pleased to see the Lubbock health care center we've been working on for this past year will soon be complete.  

The project entails the renovation of 6,500 sq ft of existing building space (built in the 1980s as a porcelain lab) + the addition of approximately 1,000 sf to create a new medical office center that will house two separate health clinics plus an executive business center.  Construction is expected to be complete in September.

But could I do any better, I wondered? This became something of an obsession. To start, there had to be some parameters since there was not client program.  The following is what I settled on:  

• Three bedrooms with one being a master suite
• Fit onto a typical 50'x150' lot
• Front porch was a must in order to engage the street
• Open concept living with a kitchen I would want

For this first design, Avenue G Contemporary, I designed a two story home.  I like this solution over a ranch as it provides a smaller footprint. The materials help express the simple massing of the building rather than offering mere decoration. These include a board and batten wood siding, masonry brick and then a zinc metal panel system wrapping the box element at the front.  

As you'll see, I didn't include an attached garage on this particular model.  I played around with providing a single, or a two-car or even a tandem garage but it took over the front elevation.  I felt having a front porch was more important, so I settled on a freestanding, detached garage for this design.

I realize a contemporary home isn't for everyone but I wonder how this measures up. How did I do? Give me some input to help inform the next one!

This post has been a long time coming...drum roll please.  The past year was spent working on a residential renovation + addition project.  The design transformed a 1950's 2 bedroom, one bath home into a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath updated modern marvel.  Check out the transformation...​

These last two photos above show off the master suite addition which really leans into the Mid-century modern style with its large expanse of windows and deep overhangs to protect  from the Texas sun.

I don't have great before/after photos for the interior since we basically took everything down to the studs.  The existing bedrooms and bath were renovated and updated. The  public living space at the center of the home was completely opened up with soaring ceilings and large expanses of glass at the front and year to bring the outside in...no more dark corners!

Finally, the master suite includes a sitting area, a large bedroom, walk-thru closet and a five piece bath.  It's truly a master retreat.

I wanted to share this fun project with you.  This summer I met an incredible entrepreneur who in addition to many other things, he has a storefront at the Southwest Center Mall here in Oak Cliff.
The store's concept was much like how you would compile a mixed tape back in the day. You selected a variety of different songs and artists, and the burned the music to your own CD. With things having moved onto to the digital format, he was changing the store format and offering custom t-shirts.  Just like the music, you get to visit the store, design a composition that works for you, and then have it printed right there in the store.  How fun! I put together several different design options. Below are some shots of the design concepts plus the final photos.  I think it turned out great. Go take a peek next time you are in the OC!