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August, 2017 – Oakdale, MINN. –  Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota (AERC) recently completed a 17,000 square foot expansion of their Oakdale facility. The team at AERC made the decision to expand the hospital in response to a rise in demand for specialty services and treatment options for pets. The design team at Krech, O’Brien, Mueller & Associates (KOMA) provided architectural, interior design, and structural engineering services to the renovated Oakdale center, which is now home to ten specialties, with room to add more.

AERC opened its original Oakdale location in 2000. At the time, it offered only emergency services on nights, weekends, and holidays.  In 2009 AERC constructed a new clinic with the help of KOMA, adding a criticalist (specialist in emergency medicine) and as the demand for specialists increased over the years, internal medicine, surgery, rehabilitation, cardiology, dentistry and oral surgery, dermatology, radiology and neurology were also added.  The current expansion offers space for staff and patients by including a community room, board room and additional offices. It also allows for specialized medical equipment.

AERC selected MRI and CT scan equipment from the human medical field as opposed to veterinary as these provide increased power and better image quality. The installation of this delicate equipment meant special attention to detail had to be paid to the architectural component. “This specialized equipment was a crucial aspect of the design,” says principal architect Steve Iaria, “there are many factors that come into play to make sure this equipment can function properly.” The MRI machine weighs approximately 3,000 pounds and had to be lifted via crane. After it was in place, the last wall of the MRI room was raised into position. Due to the MRI’s magnetic pull, no surrounding components could contain any metal. The MRI also will not tolerate a disruption like shaking or rattling well, so it could not be housed on an outside wall.  The CT machine also had a special requirement; due to the radiation emission, the surrounding area necessitated lead shielding. In conjunction with the specialty equipment, the project entailed adding three sterile surgery suites, one of which boasts sterility levels akin to surgical suites in human hospitals. Specialized mechanical systems were also designed to increase the level of air quality throughout the facility.

The space planning of the clinic was another critical aspect to the renovation. The intensive care unit (ICU) is located centrally, with anesthesia prep next to it, as well as isolation, labs, and radiology allowing specialists to be close to any lab equipment they may need in an emergency setting. “There is a real need for these specialists, and having a clinic that can function and house specialty equipment and adapt to the changing medical needs is such a large piece of that,” says Dr. Reynhout, the center’s Hospital Director.

The project team also included the mechanical and electrical engineers at Emanuelson-Podas and DJ Kranz as the general contractor.

March 2017 – Minneapolis, Minn. – New trends are revolutionizing the banking industry and Wings Financial Credit Union is committing to the change. With the help of the interior designers at Krech, O’Brien, Mueller & Associates (KOMA), the team is developing a series of new prototypes and prototypical elements to introduce into Wings’ new and existing branches – dedicating themselves to the bank of the future, implementing emerging technologies and the design innovations that support them.

It used to be that every time customers needed banking assistance, they would go to a brick and mortar building, sit face to face with a banker and attain their transactions. With technology advancing and mobile opportunities more readily available, not every branch requires such a traditional format. Wings Financial recently launched a new prototype integrating these trends. This prototype includes the implementation of Personal Teller Machines (PTM’s), just one of the many technological advances in banking. These machines, while echoing the aesthetics of an ATM, allow a customer to not only complete cash deposits but to also complete other transactions , for example anything from a mortgage inquiry to a small business loan. The PTM’s facilitate live face to face interaction on the screen; this lets the customer ask questions and experience the personal service but it permits the banker to help customers at multiple locations by remote interaction. “This prototype consisted of an entirely new space allocation due to the newer technology,” says interior designer Leanne Tanguay, “we had to consider how to make the retail space approachable and usable while fully incorporating Wings’ branding elements.

The interior designers at KOMA worked with Wings to implement their first new prototype on the skyway level of Rand Tower, Minneapolis in 2016. Shortly following, an adaptation of the prototype was designed and installed in the lower level of the Minneapolis Government Center, the project completed in February of 2017. “We learned from researching banking innovations how PTM’s will potentially work within the retail model.” says interior designer Cindy Nagel, “It is important for us to understand the new trends in banking and technology and how to implement them within a retail setting. We are really excited about the bank of the future and how it will interrelate with retail design.”