Dr. Kernagis Dental

Located between wetlands, a church, and a suburban commercial development, the Dr. Kernagis dental office is a 6,000 square feet medical office building. The building is programmed into three parts for two tenants with a shared communal space. The communal space includes a lobby, a waiting area with a beverage station, and a conference room. The primary tenant is a dental office with four treatment rooms, four hygiene rooms, a laboratory, a sterilization room, a pano, and other support spaces.

Contextually, the building connects spiritually to its site, providing a strong presence of nature. The internal and external pressures break the typical rectangular office box into three parts to invite visitors inside. The two outer parts are angled to react to the streets and create a dynamic transition to the wetlands. The third part becomes the interstitial space connecting the visitors to the wetlands. The roof acts as a mediator and precursor to the visitors' experience. Its strong angular shape opens the building to Fletcher Avenue and the wetlands on the opposite side. Angled steel columns dance with the surrounding trees. Geometric abstraction collides with natural elements, yet this collision reveals the site's genius loci.

Nature fills the interior of the communal space through transparency. Various seating options, chairs, lounge chairs, benches, and high chairs, invite you to wait with nature still in mind. The treatment rooms are organized around the exterior with large fenestrations. The core contains all the workspaces with their machines working endlessly, engaging curiosity.

This dialogue between man and nature is reflected in the materiality of the envelope, wood against cement, cement against stone. The horizontal wood planks wrap around the pure solid geometrical shapes, colliding with and reclaiming them. Large fenestrations punctuate the wood cladding to afford visitors optimal views of nature, providing a serene atmosphere inside and out.