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Size: 5000 sf Completed 2006 The New Town Dental Arts building is located at the intersection of Courthouse Street and Discovery Park Boulevard in the New Town district of James City County. As the name of the building implies, Sebastiana Springmann practices dentistry as an art as well as a medical service. This building embodies her commitment to the profession she practices with the same attention to detail and excellence. New Town is a mixed-use, pedestrian oriented, planned community with strict architectural guidelines and review. Unlike typical suburban development, New Town employs the principles of New Urbanism, requiring that buildings reinforce the streetscape and address a pedestrian scale. |
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| Embracing these
principles creates many practical challenges. For example, while
the design guidelines require that the pedestrian approach be primary, a
medical office must also be convenient to the automobile. So, the
design solution chosen pulls the waiting room away from the main body of
the building. This allows entry from two different directions.
The pedestrian approach is a covered portico that presents a formal
facade to the street. It also allows a second approach, from the
parking lot, which traverses through a less formal trellised colonnade.
Once in the waiting room, one's eyes are drawn upward. The ceiling
vaults up to a cupola which during business hours allows natural
daylight to filter into the room from above, creating a relaxing and
inviting environment. The building's functions are organized around a simple and functional circulation pattern. The support functions fall to the middle of the plan. The dental operatories are arranged for light quality along the two North facades (as you would an artist's studio). The administrative areas fill in the remaining elements of the circuit. The New Town guidelines also dictated that a building in this location be two-story, or be of two-story scale. This is yet another challenge for a small medical building in that access to an upper level of medical service would require an elevator. Thus, a mezzanine was incorporated in the design to accomplish the two-story scale and house all the mechanical and electrical equipment in easy-to-access spaces. The space left-over is planned for lease to future non-medical office use. |
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| The exterior building materials draw from local tradition: brick, cast stone, metal railings, metal roofing, classical columns, and slate-like (fiberglass) shingles. But the vocabulary is used to create a distinctly contemporary statement. For example, in lieu of wrought iron and timbers, the hand rails and trellis are fashioned in brushed aluminum, with simple lines and shapes. As an accent, major elements of the fenestration are hooded with an "eyebrow" of standing seam aluminum. The focal point of the building composition is the waiting room. This element is given its appropriate prominence with a higher eave line, enhanced window and door elements, and a cupola. They expound upon the architectural character of the rest of the building with a higher level of richness, telling of the waiting room's special function as the entry. | ||
| New Town Dental Arts is more than a dental office. It is an expression of commitment to excellence. | ||
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