Do you want a facility that serves your clients, represents your mission, and fits within your budget? Then you’ve got to start with the right design.

It makes sense that the contractor building your facility should help you design it.

This is one of the reasons that The Dow Smith Way starts with Vision Collection.

“As soon as you have the idea you want to build, we want to be at the table immediately,” says Joey Rhyne, Partner – Design-Builder. “It’s never too early to call us.”

Dr. Joshua Garrett at Integrity Eye Care called us as soon as he had a simple sketch on a piece of paper. After several conservations with Dr. Garrett and his wife, Barbara, we were able to design a 6,800-square-foot facility with a unique combination of architectural styles, materials, and workspaces. We used that design to construct a building with an exterior that includes stone, masonry, and aluminum. The interior of Integrity Eye Care features a high-end reception area, optical sales, exam rooms, a laboratory, and administrative space.

Because this is such a collaborative process, our ideal client is someone who:

• wants a consultant and a partner
• needs a design/builder
• wants timely and trustworthy information
• is willing to participate in The Dow Smith Way
• can’t be their own general contractor
• is very busy.

Having a solid design that represents your vision for your facility isn’t just critical to the process—it can help you avoid costly mistakes and create a plan for your building to make a strong first impression.

“It really comes down to whether you want your own vision or if you want someone else’s,” Joey says. “We believe in the design-build process because we want to collaborate with you every step of the way. It’s got to have your DNA, your fingerprints, your vision. It’s got to be yours.”

That was the case with Dr. Jeff Leech, who had outgrown the space he was leasing for his dental office and wanted to do a ground-up building. He had dreamed of having a dental office that didn’t look anything like the places patients fear. He wanted something comfortable and comforting.

Joey and architect Rob McKelvey met with Dr. Leech to discuss his vision of a country cottage-style waiting area with high ceilings, farmhouse-style lighting and materials, and even a fireplace.

“Our goal was we wanted folks to not walk into a dental office. Dental offices look creepy. We wanted people to be relaxed,” Dr. Leech says. “…I just explained that to Rob. It was about a 45-minute meeting. A couple of days later, he shot me some drawings that were not far off from what you see now.”

Ultimately, we want to help you design a building that is an outward expression of your vision and values.

That’s what we were able to do when working with Pastor Monty Waldron at Fellowship Bible Church, which we built in 2014 and have since helped with expansions.

“We went into the process with the idea that our building should reflect our culture and our personality and the values of our church,” Pastor Waldron says. We brought in the architecture firm Mantel Teter to partner on the project. Pastor Waldron says that meeting with Mantel Teter’s Director of Operations David Evans really helped.

“David talked about how form follows function,” Pastor Waldron says. “We really took that to heart.”

He says working with Dow Smith Company on designing the church brought clarity to church leaders about exactly what they needed from their building.

“We all have in our minds what we would consider to be traditional church architecture. Whether it’s steeples or brick and mortar or whatever. We went into it thinking we are not after a traditional expression of a building,” Pastor Waldron says. “We didn’t start with traditional blueprints. We wanted it to be warm and inviting. We put a lot of glass on the front entrance because want you to see inside. That serves as an invitation to come and see.”