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Dynamite Dispensary Designs
What makes a design great? It all depends on the needs of the dispensary and the creativity of the designer
By Amy MacMillan and Susan Pronovost

Presentation is everything, as the saying goes. Therefore, the presentation of your dispensary is as important as the merchandise and professional service offered within.

That's why an entire industry is devoted to the successful design of optical's interiors--its shapes, colors, and contents. Clients walking through a dispensary's doors are struck first and foremost by the layout of its showroom. Are its frames offered up on tables and standing displays throughout the dispensary, or are they congregated on wall-mounted frame boards? Does the dispensary embrace a comfortable, homey feel, or is it a stark example of shining modernism. And how does the O make use of the space he or she has to work with?

Those are all challenges faced by each and every dispensary owner. The answers are found in the personality of the O, or the demographic of the client base. The answer is different for everyone, and the path taken to decide on the type of dispensary as varied as the types of dispensers.

On the following pages, Eyecare Business looks at six dispensaries, and why their "look" works for them. Each dispensary is different in location, size, client base, and goal. Therefore, while a quick glance may make one think all dispensaries look alike, the proof that they don't lies in the subtleties...the little things that are designed just for them.

Macon County Eye Center

To say that Macon County Eye Center in Decatur, Ill. faced a lot of challenges at its creation is an understatement. Not only was it combining four separate eye practices--optometrists and ophthalmologists--into one practice, but they were building a new facility as well.

The doctors of the eye center--C. Michael Murphy, David. R. Morgret, Sushant Sinha, Christine Warchol, and Charles Ahn--were building a split-level, freestanding facility with approximately 10,000 square feet of office, exam, lab, and dispensary space. Once their architects came up with the building's design, the doctors enlisted the skills of Fashion Optical Displays to help with the general space planning and, later, the design of the dispensary and waiting areas.

In some ophthalmologists' practices, the dispensary is treated as an afterthought. Not so at this eye center, where perhaps the presence of optometrists put a larger emphasis than usual on the dispensary.

The dispensary--measuring 20'x25' with a 10'x12' dispensing station--is the central area of the main level. The waiting area is adjacent to the open dispensary, allowing the patients to see the dispensary while they wait. Or better yet, to browse while they wait. The doctors' examination areas are also adjacent to the dispensary.

"All the action at the practice kind of flows through the dispensary," says Fashion Optical Displays designer Dan Sloan.

The labs are located on the basement level; a good way to keep the noise and hustle-and-bustle of a busy lab away from the patients. There is a dumbwaiter system that transports finished jobs to the dispensing area.

Because of the scope of the doctors' practice, they wanted the facility to have a very traditional, professional appearance.

"They wanted a very Harvard Law look," Sloan says. So the natural choice was wood--a lot of it. All of the counters, cabinets, and displays are in a rich, cherry wood, which provide the desired look.

However, Sloan and the doctors also wanted the facility to look and feel inviting to its patients. "[The doctors] didn't want to put anybody off," Sloan says. "They didn't want to look so exclusive that someone would feel uncomfortable going there." That was an extremely important point, because the practice has a varied patient base. They also wanted the dispensary to be light and airy.

The designers made good use of the small windows over all the wall displays, thereby countering the rich look of the cherry wood with natural, ambient light sources.

Fashion Optical customized some of their display units to ensure a perfect blend in the dispensary--something the doctors at the eye center are very happy with.

"The displays are designed for customer-friendliness and convenient browsing by patients," reports a spokeperson for the eye center. "Everything is easily accessible. We've had many positive responses about the design from patients as well as visiting doctors an sales reps."

Mission accomplished.

LensPro Optical

Lighting is one of the pivotal attractions in the design of Dallas-based ophthalmologist David W. Meltzer's optical shop, LensPro Optical.

Meltzer, who has been in the same medical office building location since 1985, opened the dispensary in February of 1998. Prior to that, Meltzer, who also has a Ph.D. in optical physics, had not owned an optical retail shop.

"I had been thinking about a shop for many years," Meltzer says. "At first, we thought it needed to be in a separate space. Eventually, it became clear that we could remodel our existing space." he says.

Meltzer initially had six exam rooms in his office, and although he wanted to save all of them, he eventually realized one would have to be sacrificed for the shop. "I was trying to preserve the six exam rooms," Meltzer remembers, "but eventually it became clear that what we really needed to do was devote more space to the optical shop. But, it's worked out well."

Meltzer, and his associates Colleen and Brad Gelb (optical manager and lab manager, respectively) configured a floor plan and created a 600-square-foot waiting room and optical shop in the 2,400-square-foot office.

To draw attention to his shop, Meltzer built in a glass store front, replacing the doctor's office door. "We face into one of the main hallways of the professional building. We've gotten a lot of business just with people walking by," Brad Gelb says.

Upon entering the office, the reception desk is immediately to the left and the optical shop is to the right. The shop is "softly divided" from the waiting room by several chairs and a couple of dispensing tables.

This "open design" is an inviting one, Colleen Gelb explains. "It keeps [patients] from being bored, or from just sitting there and reading a magazine."

The centerpiece of the new optical shop is the cabinetry, designed and built by Sandra Bright, owner of Bright Display and Design, Woodinville, Wash. Bright built 11 cherry-tone wooden cabinets, each with four individually lit glass shelves. A series of small halogen light bars on each shelf uniformly illuminate the frames' shapes, details, and colors. Furthermore, frames are displayed at a slightly backwards angle on pedestals, which eliminates any shadows.

Between the shelves are vertical mirrored side columns which add to the elegance of the design and softly illuminate a patient's face without shadows, which can emphasize wrinkles, Bright explains. The showcase lights cleverly "flood" a patient's face so that a nearsighted person will still be able to see how the frames look on.

The lighting in the rest of the office consists of some fluorescent fixtures in the middle of the waiting room.

"We tried to get bulbs that were complementary to the halogens," Meltzer explains. The dispensing tables and Colleen Gelb's desk match the cabinet wood, while the teal carpeting and beige and blue wallpaper accent the whole design and "Tiffany's" atmosphere.

Dale M. Koers, O.D.

Dale M. Koers, O.D., knew he wanted to convey a warm, boutique atmosphere when he opened his first solo practice in early 1997 in Carmel Valley, an upscale neighborhood in San Diego, Calif.

Koers also wasn't afraid of a "commercial" dispensary appearance, however, he wanted it to be upscale. He enlisted Barbara Wright, of Barbara Wright Designs in Big Bear Lake, Calif., to achieve this look.

Initially, Koers had some color ideas in mind. He wanted to nail down the contemporary look with a black, brown, and light wood color scheme, but he left most of the design up to Wright.

"It was my personal preference to have something 'warm,'" Koers says. "That's why we chose browns with wood, and the black was just used for accent."

"He was very specific in giving me those directions," Wright remembers. "Once I had those parameters, he let me do what I thought was best."

Wright first had to combat the "boxy" look of the location. She chose asymmetrical angled walls--which seem to "zig zag" out--to disguise the long shape of the space, which is approximately 60 feet deep. These angled walls, made of drywall, are painted dark brown, and stop just short of the 10-foot ceiling. Fluorescent fixtures are hidden behind the wall to create a dramatic lighting effect.

The frame showcases themselves are niches, built out of the drywall and offset by a maple trim. The halogen lighting is hidden behind the trim surrounding each shelf, which is a white Formica. Wright said she decided against glass shelves, because glass is a "magnet for dust" and because the white surface combined with the halogen lighting actually highlights the individual frames.

Several full-length, maple-trimmed mirrors divide the shelves. Two oval-shaped, imported European laminate dispensing tables offset the angles in the space, and give an illusion of more space. Black leather chairs accent the tables.

The two exam rooms are located in the back of the office, and can be entered through a pointed archway, which subtly separates the dispensary from the "professional" area of the practice.

"I like to keep people's attention in the dispensing area where the merchandise is," Wright says.

In front of the receptionist's counter, and leading all they way down to the office, is a polished black granite floor. Not only is the floor elegant, but it serves a practical purpose as well. It ensures that the floor area in front of the reception desk will not get worn out, Wright explains.

Koers also discovered that the black granite serves as a terrific polarized lens demonstrator. When the sun gleams in through the front window and bounces off the granite, it causes a glare that Koers uses to his advantage when selling patients on the benefits of polarized lenses.

Koers is pleased with the design, and says after two-and-a-half years in his location, he wouldn't change a thing if he had to do it all over again.

I Optics...World-Class

When she was preparing to open her optical boutique, Sharon Foote Katzman didn't know what she wanted to do with the design as much as she knew what she didn't want to do.

After working 10 years as a sales rep for high-end eyewear vendors, she had seen dispensaries all over the county. However, few struck her as being unique.

"There really weren't any that were different from the norm. Many had everything you would expect from an optical shop," she says, "but they weren't fun. I wanted fun."

So, "fun" was the goal when she and her husband, fine arts photographer Steven Katzman, set about designing her own business: I Optics... World Class in Sarasota, Fla.

She describes her store's neighborhood as being affluent, with a high density of professional and artistic residents. "It's an eclectic, artsy area," she says.

I Optics is 800 square feet, "not big, but not small, either," Katzman says. With no lab and no optometrist facilities (she em-ploys a full-time and a part-time optician), she is able to dedicate her entire space to her eyewear and pieces of art that are displayed around the showroom.

On the walls are Mirabella cabinets, imported from Italy. Although they were designed to house special glassware or other collectibles, Katzman uses them to display frames. Elsewhere in the store are shelves of green tempered glass, which play off the dove-egg blue floors and green ceilings. The room is illuminated by track lighting and eye-catching, hanging milk bottle lamps.

"None of the furniture or cabinetry is optical," she explains. "It's all home furnishings from Italy, and we make it work here."

Patrons will not find eyewear laid out on every table, and stacked on every wall at I Optics, either. "I don't ever display everything I have," she says. "It's a European philosophy of retail. It forces your staff to interact with your clientele."

While the boutique is known for its high-fashion frames, it is also know for its unique collection of non-optical accessories.

"We wanted to bring color into the store, but we did it with display props," Katzman says. The boutique is filled with Alessi accessories, Italian-made whimsical household items that help promote the fun atmosphere.

But the absolute center of attention is the Italian bar that is in itself a work of art. When closed, it resembles a large egg. When customers ask what it is--and they always do--Katzman hits the remote and it opens into a full bar that displays an assortment of glassware and other high-end bar accessories, for sale as well. "All the new frames get displayed at the bar first," she says.

The interior of I Optics was designed by Katzman and her husband, who in addition to his fine arts career has a background in building design. And although it has only been open since last November, the boutique has garnered attention.

"Because we spend so much time with [the design], it really paid off for us," she says. "If this was ordinary-looking, that attention would not have come so quickly."

The DraisinVision Group

When Neil Draisin, O.D., designed his first practice in Charleston, S.C. 16 years ago, he wanted a design that would reflect his own personality--open and gregarious.

"It's a real open-floor plan. We were one of the first offices to have an open counter reception area. The receptionist is not behind a sterile window," says Draisin, who has been in practice for 26 years.

Draisin and an insurance agent friend had built the freestanding building where he still is, and split it between the two of them. After seven years, Draisin hired Cy Furman, director of design at San Francisco-based Magic Design, to help out with an addition to his side of the building.

For the past several years, Draisin was aware he needed to update the look of his office, which still had the original furniture, carpeting and paint from 16 years ago. Draisin hired Magic Design once again for the layout and design. He also enlisted the his brother-in-law, Kevin Wolman, an Atlanta-based interior designer.

Wolman picked beiges, off-whites, and other light neutral colors for the walls, carpeting and furniture for the base office to complement the wood accents that Furman had suggested.

"Dr. Draisin wanted a cleaner, more high-tech look, so I thought wood would be the direction to go," Furman says. "I felt wood could keep the place warm, and at the same time, keep it contemporary."

The optical area of the office (about 800 square feet) is L-shaped, and upon entering, patients step into the women's section. Furman conceived an inviting entrance, because the other section of the dispensary is hidden around the corner. "I wanted to create something that would have strong impact right away, so I created this counter area with chairs. It's more of a salon feeling--less stodgy."

The women's counters--which alternate between 38 and 44 inches high--sit in front of a showcase of glass frame shelves built into two-tone maple cabinets with a cherry-stained maple trim. The frames are locked up in the glass shelves. "It gives a jewelry atmosphere," Draisin says. "I don't mind people browsing, but I want an optician helping them."

This counter is lined by contemporary "formed wood" maple chairs. To further emphasize the salon feel in the women's section, Furman hung suspended pendant halogen lights from the drop-down squared ceiling. Around the corner is the men's section on one side, and the sports and sunglasses section on the other. The men's section has a 30-inch high counter area with accompanying chairs. Here, Furman placed full-length beveled mirrors on the columns which stand between the glass shelf displays, which are built into the wall.

At the end of the L-shaped room is the children's dispensing area. Furman built in colored lights into the wall display, which emit a "halo effect" to attract attention.

Since the remodeling was completed in December, Draisin says business has been up more than 20 percent.

Southern California College of Optometry

Eye Designs, an optical design firm and display manufacturer, has faced a lot of challenges in its day. But one of its more recent ones was: How to update an antiquated dispensary building into a state-of-the-art optical facility that reflects the optical college in which it's located.

Enter Jerry Ku, western regional design director for Eye Designs. "Our goal was to take the office into the 21st century," Ku says.

The fact that the dispensary is located at the Southern California College of Optometry's (SCCO) Eye Clinic posed other design incentives as well, he added. SCCO is a well-respected educational institution, turning out students who will enter the world of optometry as well as housing some of the nation's best-respected optometric educators. The dispensary would be viewed with a level of professional scrutiny unseen by most retail locations.

But the dispensary, as part of the Eye Clinic, services the general public as well... Which lead to Ku's next challenge: the size of it all. The dispensary had to display an average of 1,500 frames to service its large case load. To handle all that traffic, the Eye Designs team had to fit in nine dispensing stations. "The typical number is four. Six maximum," Ku says.

All of that--plus the lab and work offices--had to fit into an existing 37'x37' facility. "The way it turned out, it looks big. But it really isn't enormous," he says.

Ku chose modern colors mixed with metal and chrome fixtures to give the space the high-tech appearance it needed. "It gives the room a light and airy look," he says. Creams, beiges, burgundy, and aqua are the dominant colors.

The lighting is also a testament to a modern look. Hanging lights that point toward the frame boards on the walls produce a special low voltage light. They give off a richer, more cosmetically oriented glow.

To bring technology to the dispensing tables, a modern-looking Lazy Susan turnstile was installed in the middle of each pair of dispensing tables, on which laptop computers are placed. The Lazy Susan design allows the computer to be shared by the opticians at the tables, while the presence of laptops throughout the dispensary adds to the state-of-the-art factor.

But all of this technology can be pretty harsh on the eyes, so the Eye Designs team decided to "soften" the look of the dispensary just a bit by adding curves or the illusion of curves.

The wall frameboards are set against the wall at slight angles. The tables are oval shaped, and complementary chairs have oval backs and seats. Even the hardware on the cabinet drawers is curved. The carpet borders add to the illusion of a curved room, and help lead the eye directly to the frame boards.

To avert attention from the existing tile ceiling, Ku added drop lighting and inset cobalt blue lights.

Best of all, all of the furniture and fixtures are all completely mobile. Should the dispensary ever have to move to a different location, they can all be easily packed up and brought along. EB