McDONALD DENTAL GROUP

McDonald Dental is really a story of opportunity. Like many retail spaces, Pier 1 has been affected by the overwhelmingly growing online marketplace, resulting in a need to close most of its locations nationwide. Fortunately for some, their former locations offer prime locations, great parking/access, visibility, and high-quality building shells that still have a lot of life to live. McDonald Dental type projects have really become a very necessary and interesting architecture problem for many communities and will continue to be driven by an ever-changing business environment. As the cost of land, cost of construction and changing methods of doing business continue to be volatile, architecture and design will need to adapt their approach to solving problems for clients. In this case, the design team did not have a clean canvas. Rather, it was left with a unique ‘point of departure’ not defined by them. That being said, the project became about carefully shaping a new home for a different use and doing it in a way that felt like it could have existed that way from scratch. McDonald Dental is a great example of how design can stitch economics and business with design and still leave a client with an inspiring, high-performance space that reflects their personality and values while creating comfortable spaces for their community.

TYPOLOGY

Healthcare