Projects
Enders Corporate Office
Linglestown, PA
The new corporate office design creates a fresh, forward-looking workspace for Enders, an insurance, financial and benefits company. The design focuses on high quality, locally and intentionally sourced materials paired with craft quality and millwork joinery details as a metaphor for client relationships within the insurance industry.
The client identified the following trends as integral to the design:
- brand integration,
- flexibility/technology,
- workstyle concepts,
- human ergonomics,
- health and wellbeing / biophilic design,
- kitchen/lounge/flex,
- and pet-friendly design.
The design result is an inviting hospitality experience for the staff and clients, with amenity spaces integrated throughout the building. The former cramped office was replaced with generously sized work spaces, enhanced amenities and views of the Blue Mountain range from the community room and staff bistro.
Reinforcing Brand Messaging Through Design
The contemporary branding of Enders is echoed in the contemporary design of the building. Crisp and simple forms result in a well-detailed, yet economical structure. Client and staff experiences are conveyed through design details that create a welcoming, homelike atmosphere.
The reception desk and the millwork and joinery backdrop speak to Enders’ commitment to locally sourced materials. This custom design by the RLPS interior designer is sculptural, yet playful, and the cantilevered design provides ADA access at the desk. The desk draws inspiration from the architecture of the building and creates harmony between the quarter sawn white oak and quartz. The locally sourced white oak was also used as a screen wall on the stairs. The floors were made in north-central Pennsylvania.
A Corporate Office Design that Serves the Local Community
Enders’ commitment to being a good steward within the community was evident from the beginning of the project. While demolishing vacant buildings on the site to make way for the new office building and parking lot, Enders partnered with the local fire company to allow for controlled fires to help train the volunteer firefighters.
Anchoring the west end of downtown Linglestown, the welcoming front porch along the streetscape connects to the downtown fabric. The custom designed and fabricated front door is open to the community. The ample conference spaces and a bistro are open to the adjacent walkable community. The parking lot serves the public by hosting local events that allows the surrounding community to get together.
Photography Credit: Justin Harclerode, RLPS
Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic
Lancaster, PA
The Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic was established in 1938. It is the oldest clinic in the world devoted to the comprehensive care of children born with cleft lips and palate and other craniofacial anomalies regardless of their ability to pay. The clinic was founded by Lancaster orthodontist Dr. Herbert K. Cooper on the first floor of his home. Today, it is one of three clinics in Pennsylvania that offer all aspects of cleft treatment.
Located at 223 N. Lime Street since the mid-1980s, the Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic at the Sam and Dena Lombardo Health Pavilion has undergone $3.2 million of interior and exterior renovations. The extensive renovations doubled the number of patient treatment spaces reducing wait times for appointments.
Revitalizing an Old Space for its Young Patients
Complete interior design services for this 60+ year-old building included assisting with the selection of interior and exterior building finishes, as well as coordinating paint, flooring, and lighting selections with the contractor. RLPS Interior Designers also provided furniture selections and fabrics and supported delivery and installation.
Along with a two-story daylit atrium, a KidsZone was added to the waiting room area. The KidsZone features a playhouse, toys, appropriately sized seating and a colorful mural. Acoustic panel “clouds” suspended from the ceiling in that area add visual interest as well as reduce noise.
RLPS coordinated donations throughout the office; this included contributions towards flooring, ceilings, and countertops. Multiple donor walls have also been designed and are awaiting installation.
Creating Harmonious Work and Treatment Spaces
Cool, calming colors were used throughout the building, based upon the recommendations of a Feng Shui consultant. Nature-themed photographs taken by local photographers and selected by the owner are hung throughout the office and help bring a sense of tranquility into the space. In the lower level, the staff lounge received an update of new soft seating. Sit-to-stand desks were also provided for staff.
Sound-reducing doors and walls installed in each private room help deafen noise. Inside the patient rooms, television monitors installed on the ceiling allow patients to watch their favorite shows to help them relax during treatment.
Barley Snyder Offices
Lancaster, PA
Interior updates for this thriving law practice focused primarily on the top two floors of work spaces, including the third floor paralegal and attorney’s offices, as well as a library and lounge area. The project also involved updates to the first floor annex hospitality serving area and conversion of an office to a small conference room. Exposed brick walls and other distinctive historical elements were maintained for the updates.
This unique office setting was the site of additions and renovations previously designed by RLPS, resulting in the current three bay, three-story façade. The building face blends traditional and contemporary elements in its use of materials, scale and context with surrounding buildings. Handmade oversized brick with grapevine mortar joints respects the adjacent historical structures. The bronze mirrored glass on the modern annex addition literally reflects a noteworthy Second Empire structure across the street.
Photo Credit: Nathan Cox Photography
Sunshine Pediatric Dentistry
Lititz, PA
This project included complete interior design services for a pediatric dental office expansion. We assisted the client with selection of interior building finishes including paint, flooring, and lighting options and coordinated the selections with the contractor. We also provided furniture selections with finishes and fabrics appropriate for both children and adults and then supported furniture delivery and installation.
Photo Credit: Patton Photography
Penn Medicine – Lancaster General Health
Lancaster, PA
Multiple architectural and interior design projects over the course of 14 years have encompassed new constructions, major renovations/conversions and interior updates. This has included multiple areas of Lancaster General Hospital, Women’s and Babies Hospital and the Suburban Outpatient Pavilion as well as Urgent Care Centers, Specialty and General Practice Physicians’ Offices and a College Medical Center for student healthcare and counseling services. All space layouts, furniture and finish selections are made in deference to long-range plans for specific areas, as well as LGH standards for quality, flexibility and maintainability.
Photo Credit: Nathan Cox Photography
Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority
Lancaster, PA
Initiated by a growing need for expansion of an industrial trash center, this project evolved into a total transformation that created an appealing new gateway into a revitalized city. Since an active switch yard was located directly behind the property, the creative solution features a railroad theme that is sensitive to surrounding businesses and redevelopment initiatives. At 45 feet high, the new transfer station is the largest of the four new buildings. To break down the building’s scale, it features brick and stone arches, columns, round windows and split-face masonry foundation. As part of the renovations to the authority office building, unusual wooden bowstring trusses from the interior, believed to have been built in the 1930s, were placed above the front exterior of the building and illuminated at night.
Awards: Preservation Honor Award for New Construction, sponsored by the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County
Reese Engineering Offices
State College, PA
Designed as a series of connected pavilions, the exterior makes use of natural materials such as stained cedar siding, colored stucco and copper roofs. Broad expanses of glass with large sheltering overhangs take advantage of views of the site and indirect day lighting.
The one-story facility has three open studios with soaring ceilings and glass walls that face the site’s secluded six-acre wooded campus. At the building center is the lobby and bistro, an open space with a fully-equipped gourmet kitchen, dining area, club chairs and a fireplace. An adjacent courtyard with flagstone patio provides outdoor seating. Other amenities include an extensive resource library, two conference rooms, a large workroom and a fitness center for employees and their families. Staff input and feedback was encouraged throughout the planning and design process.
Photo Credit: Larry Lefever Photography
Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Lancaster, PA
Renovations to an unoccupied office building created a dynamic, multi-functional community hub. The building includes two levels of parking, a community business center on the main floor, and two upper levels of offices and shared spaces for the Chamber and several partner organizations. The commission began with an office-wide design competition. About a dozen teams presented a variety of approaches to reinventing the 30,000 square foot office building as the first step in selecting a preliminary design concept that would be subsequently developed into the final solution.
A New Face for the Chamber
The Chamber was committed to respecting the history of Lancaster while signaling an organizational commitment to looking forward. The updated building maintains a classical hierarchy, but is rendered in contemporary tones and textures. The former façade of 115 East King Street was designed at a time when modern lines and new architectural rhythms rejected the context and cadence of surrounding buildings in favor of new ideas. The new building face recaptures the rich architectural context of King Street by breaking down the former 60 foot façade to create a more graceful 45 foot wide main elevation stepping out toward the street.
Collaborative Work and Meeting Spaces
The building interior focuses on a range of multi-functional event and casual collaboration spaces. Varied furniture solutions include stand-up desks, “touchdown” work stations and comfortable seating with integrated charging stations, all supporting the needed flexibility. Bright pops of color and writable walls within meeting spaces and casual seating areas reinforce the energy and openness of the many spaces designed to foster idea sharing, community partnerships and business development.
Reinforcing Local Connections
Notable local material selections include slate and copper accent walls in meeting rooms, linear wood plank clouds painted in custom platinum and an open structural steel-frame stairway leading visitors to the community business center. Ceiling and lighting solutions throughout the building reflect a contemporary industrial aesthetic while maximizing natural light, integrating LED technology, and managing acoustical stability. A few details were incorporated during construction when unforeseen treasures were discovered during interior demolition. For example, an original beam from a Lancaster steel company was left exposed in the employee bistro.
Photo Credit: Nathan Cox Photography
Fidevia Gateway Building
Lititz, PA
The first of two 4,000 square foot commercial/retail buildings, this Federal style brick structure reflects many period buildings with various aspects of the Federal style. The project also helped facilitate a long-awaited extension of a road to run behind the property. The eight-acre infill property is an irregularly-shaped, hillside lot that straddles both the Lititz Borough and Warwick Township. Future development plans for the tract include the second commercial/retail building as well as a pocket park and two age-restricted apartment buildings with ground level garage parking.
Photo Credit: Nathan Cox Photography