Country Vista Medical
LIBERTY LAKE, WASHINGTON
The Country Vista Medical Building is a development model that parts from the traditional tenant/landlord relationship and is instead a unique partnership between the businesses that call the building home. This partnership was leveraged to create a custom one-of-kind solution that met the diverse needs of each owner. An optometrist, dentist, and café all had exclusive needs and requirements that they appointed the architect in solving.
Constraints included visual prominence of the double drive-thru café with a busy corner intersection, proximity of parking to the medical lobby and entrance, as well as branding and visual connections for all tenants along the main thoroughfare. Stand-alone vehicle-centric drive-thru establishments were not allowed by local zoning ordinances, surface parking was required to be located to the rear of the building, and building lobbies and entrances were required to face the right-of-way - requirements that conflicted with the desires of the building owners. These prerequisites combined with zoning regulations aimed at creating a pedestrian friendly environment established a unique challenge.
The solution proposed by the architect was essentially a building with no “back” or “rear”, but instead a central lobby with multiple entrances on all facades that could connect the parking area with the sidewalk, café and the individual entrances of the dentist and optometrist. The café maintains the prominence at the corner while being connected physically to the rest of the building, classifying it as “secondary” to the primary medical use of the building. This physical connection effectively allowed a double drive-thru that is critical to the business model of the café, typically prohibited by the zoning code. The dentist and optometrist share a lobby that serves both sides of the building, fulfilling requirements of both owners and zoning while providing an open and welcoming feeling, regardless which direction a building user approaches from.
