Rural Ortho Clinic

Project highlights: Rural Ortho Clinic

• Architecture firm:  Johnsen Schmaling Architects
• Owner: Dr. Alison Mantel, DDS
• Location: Cedarburg, Wis.
• Category: Built: Less than $25 million (construction cost)
• Project site: Not previously developed
• Building program type(s): Healthcare - medical office

On the outskirts of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, where health care choices are somewhat limited, this small orthodontic clinic upends the typical introverted and fluorescent-lit medical facility typology. Designed for a young doctor who relocated her bustling practice to a vacant lot at the intersection of farmland and town, the building’s crisp and precise architecture evokes its pastoral setting while avoiding vernacular nostalgia. The project is reflective of the owner’s work, which relies heavily on efficiency and uncompromising purity.

To maintain an intentionally minimal profile, the design team envisioned the clinic as two complementary forms: a light gray volume that envelops a low-slung base volume. Along the street, where mandates demand lab and sterilization rooms remain windowless, the clinic’s gray volume and charcoal base frame a long, striated green wall. It alludes to the region’s agrarian history and the banded patterns of nearby farm fields.

During its research, the team discovered that orthodontic clinics throughout the U.S. either continue to embrace tired health care design tropes or, unfortunately, infantilize their environments in unsuccessful attempts to appeal to young patients. The team was determined to avoid both of these approaches. Instead, the overarching design relies on the preponderance of evidence that the practice’s predominantly young patients will benefit from a bright and light-filled environment that eschews the claustrophobic atmosphere of a typical medical office.

Upon entry, patients are greeted with a wood-slatted ceiling plane that guides them to the reception desk and cradles a glazed waiting room. During treatment, they are treated to a native prairie meadow overlook along the glazed open-bay operatory space. To further dignify the space, polished concrete floors and milled baseboards replace vinyl strips, while natural materials and elegant furniture prove that waiting rooms don’t have to be dull and uninteresting. In addition, a custom coat rack crafted from off-the-shelf drawer pulls accommodates patients of all sizes.

Though the design was initially met with skepticism during a comprehensive review required by the municipality, the team responded by demonstrating how the new building maintains the tradition of Midwestern pastoral architecture. It was approved unanimously with no public objections.