We love our small business clients like Weiler Orthodontics and Invisalign. HERE is a link to the project portfolio. We were invited into this design project along with Herr and Company. The goal was to modernize the existing aesthetics ofWeiler Orthodontics and Invisalign. The existing interior finishes were dated and did not reflect the innovative, fun, and relaxing culture Dr. Weiler had created. It was time for a facelift.
We worked hard on coordinating how to make the changes to best reflect the business Dr. Weiler had created. His aesthetic goals were a balance of kid friendly, sophisticated, and functional. His goal of making each patient feel special and welcome were key components of the design plan.
We worked hard to figure out the right balance to keep noise down to make the space as low stress as possible for patients. Learning how the Weiler team worked and understanding the function of the space was critical for our design.
We love working with small local businesses to make sure their buildings reflect their business culture. We have worked with many that have had tight budgets, deadlines, and needed to stay open during construction. It is a challenge to get all the parts in the right place to make it a successful project, but we know how to navigate through the challenge.
We love our small business clients like theSpeech and Language Center. Here are more photos of this project HERE. A few years ago we were challenged to figure out how to add space and update the look at The Speech and Language Center. This project site had an existing one story building – simple structure with a gable. The building setbacks on each side of the building were already fairly close to the exterior walls. The parking lot was already close to the front of the building and they needed all the parking spaces that existed.
We started brainstorming ways to add space and figured out we could add 10′ along the front of the building and a little more on one side. That would allow for some reorganization of spaces inside the existing walls to achieve some of the goals of the business.
In this project, we worked closely with the builder to make sure the design hit a very tight budget and stayed within the available building area. It was a balance to achieve a particular style for the business image and function for their desired program.
If you are a small business owner and want to expand, reorganize, or update your building, let us know. We love working with local business owners and understand challenging sites, budgets, and buildings.
I have been looking for some cool online architectural tours to add to the list of things to keep young minds busy. Here is my list of online architectural tours you don’t want to miss. What should be on the list that I don’t have yet?
I don’t have any answers, just pondering the lessons we have learned already from this life altering quarantine / virus. Life will forever be different on the other side. Our priorities changed overnight. So my question is what do we want to keep in place that we are now doing? What do we want to invite back into our lives? What does life look like after the quarantine ends?
I too am struggling as a small business owner. Like everyone else, this world changing virus has impacted our firm, employees, and clients. It will continue to impact us for weeks, months, and years. I should have met with two potential new clients this week – those meetings did not happen. I should have several meetings scheduled with potential new clients in the coming weeks – I have none. This is bad for us like so many others. Unfortunately we are not an industry that will be “bailed out” like airlines, hotels, and the stock market. Unlike our employees I am not eligible for unemployment benefits no matter what happens to our firm. This is a gut punch for me, our employees, and our industry.
It is also a gut punch for so many others in our community. The first hit are those that live paycheck to paycheck. The people that serve food, entertain, own restaurants, massage, teach yoga, own retail shops…. were all hit first. The impacts will touch everyone in our community.
There is good happening. In our firm, we now have systems in place to work remotely, to communicate virtually with our clients and staff, and we still have work for a few weeks in front of us. We are now more resilient than we were two weeks ago. It is not perfect, but it is working. We will take these lessons into the future and be able to better serve our clients.
Some other positives I am seeing emerge in our community:
support of local business
families spending quality time together
appreciation for our teachers and the work they do
appreciation for each other and a focus on the need for quality social interaction
awareness of the hunger problem in our community and the important way that schools feed our children (and a focus on the need to solve this problem)
An online Tip Jar has been created to help support service industry workers
Non-profits are doing what they do and serving as a safety net for our community – it is not new, but I want to make sure to highlight their work
the importance of art, music, and literature is being seen by everyone as they celebrate beauty and creativity online
What else should be on my list? What will you want to keep in place as we emerge from this crisis? What are you most looking forward to having back after the quarantine is lifted and “normal” life resumes?
It is always exciting to start the design of a new home. The client tells you about their dream life and your goal is to put together a home that will facilitate that life. They talk about patterns in their life, goals, and show some images of styles of architecture they like and then you are off to design. It is honestly why I am an architect. I love the challenge of designing a solution that will facilitate a client’s dream to become a reality.
This home is no exception. The spaces were crafted to facilitate their dream life. The house was set on the site to maximize the views and to allow the home to grow out of the site. The clients had both worked with an architect before so they knew the process going into design. We walk through how they want to live, balance that against styles of architecture and budget, and we create a home design.
This home, being built by Herr and Company is moving into the finishes phase. The cabinets by Classic Kitchens are being installed, flooring laid, drywall painted. This finish phase takes time and attention to detail to get it right – that is why I like to work with specific builders that understand how important it is to focus on the details. If you want to learn more about the process, check out this resource I created at buildahomeinvirginia.com
Simple details in this home like the placement of the soaking tub and the floating front porch bring the total design together. The slope of the porch, how you transition into the home, the space needed around the tub, the way the door swings for the shower are all taken into account in design.
The reason our process works is that we only do design. We don’t want to be your builder and we will not try to take on that role. We invite the builder to be part of the design process because we need their expertise to get the total project just right – including budget. We don’t take shortcuts through the process. At the end, we will have a beautiful, healthy, energy-efficient home that will facilitate our client’s dream life.
