Construction is wrapping up on our small, little medical office building. Looks good, right?  I'm excited to get some professional photos done once all the punch items have been corrected.  I believe the developer has already found a tenant so I'm excited to see this building come to life soon!

This was a fun exercise I did at the end of last year. You may recognize the building. This is the addition we designed a few years back. The two buildings were built to infill the giant hole left when the anchor tenant grocery store backed out while the rest of the center was built in the 80s.   Completed at the end of 2021, Fresenius Kidney Care moved into the medical space right away. The retail space remains empty.
This exercise was obviously done to entice a tenant. The first illustration shows how we can add two drive-up ATMs at the front of the shopping center next to the soon-to-be-improved pole sign. The other two renderings illustrate the location & size of possible building signage. It also shows how we can modify the storefront to accommodate the walk-up ATM.

In my line of work, I get to work with a variety of people in all different fields.  While I tend to concentrate on commercial work, I do take on the occasional residential project.  ​This particular project is something of a rare hybrid: a residential additional to accommodate a fine art conservation studio.  The client is wrapping up construction with their chosen contractor & sent me these photos which I wanted to share.

The project entailed adding both a two-car garage + an art studio.  This was not just any back yard studio either.  To serve the client's future business endeavor, the space needed to hit several conditions:  appropriate lighting, large open space to accommodate large pieces of artwork, a secure vault for storage, a photography room, office space and storage to properly store supplies & precious artwork.  Quite the laundry list of items to squeeze into the back yard.  Luckily I was able to work with a true professional that knew exactly how they needed to operate to be successful.  We worked hand-in-hand to arrange a space that would meet their high standards. And I think the contractor did a great job executing the project.  

Construction completed this spring on our South Dallas project, Cliffview Crossing.  This 1980's shopping center located at S. Polk Street & W. Ledbetter in Dallas, Texas has long been a stretch of sleepy buildings hugging an over-sized parking lot.  Since the time of its opening, the heart of the center was left empty due to a grocery store anchor-tenant that never materialized. Though many would argue (including myself) a grocery store would have been the best fit for this location in South Dallas' food desert, that wasn't to be.  

The two new buildings infill the space left bare the last four decades.  The larger of the two has been custom built for Fresenius Kidney Care which moved to this new location from just around the corner of the same shopping center.  Right next door is 6,200 square feet of retail/office shell space ready to be demised into up to four tenant spaces. 

The rest of the 60,000 square foot shopping center received much needed attention as well. The green fabric awnings were replaced with new metal awnings while both decorative & security lighting was added to the building. All tenants received new signage & the center's monuments signs were redesigned. Finally, the parking lot & surrounding grounds got some much needed landscaping.

We work with developers and property managers which are often looking for ways to improve their properties in order to gain interest & relevancy in the rental market. Sometimes that means taking a look at the curb appeal.  Here are some before & proposed photos for a building in Duncanville, Texas. We are proposing new storefronts which provide needed daylight in the spaces + giving the shops more visibility from the street. There is also a new tower element we hope will assign the building an identity as well as organize the facade in a more symmetrical manner. 

This is a peak at a new project which will soon be kicking into high gear. This is a ground-up small medical office building in North Texas.  I can't wait to share more as the project progresses.  Design should be complete by the holidays with construction to be completed around this time next year.​

I'm excited to show off another project nearing completion.  Located in Midlothian, Texas' growing Midtowne development, these two new buildings offer in-town living amongst a thriving commercial center.  The project entails over 1,800 square feet of office/retail space along George Hopper Road plus over 5,500 square foot studio and single bedroom apartments.

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.