The Mint Dental Building is a new 24,000 SF, three story, Class A office building currently under construction in Anchorage, Alaska.  The main tenant and building’s owner is Mint Dental, LLC, a local, growing dental practice that needed to consolidate three area offices as well as a currently separately located dental lab. 

The dental practice’s owner, Jon McNeil, desired a high-end investment with the majority of the 2nd floor being leasable space. The 4th floor penthouse is designated to be the owner’s custom residence.  

Although the core and shell and exterior appearance of the building was designed by another architect-of-record, Kumin was hired during construction documents to facilitate coordination and permitting because of our reputation for attention to detail and knowledge of building codes. Kumin also acted as the schematic designer of the 4th floor residential space.

In addition, Kumin was selected by the owner and his construction manager to be the tenant improvement architect of the main Mint Dental clinic, compromising the entire 10,400 SF 3rd floor, the Mint Dental lab (1,236 SF) and a chiropractor’s clinic (2,723 SF) on the 2nd floor. 

In the case of the main dental clinic, the client was very hands-on with aesthetic choices and the overall clinic layout, but required Kumin to bring his plans to fruition. 

In this design refinement and coordination process, Kumin gained valuable insight and local connections in the dental field, specifically regarding dental equipment and casework requirements. This connection and the knowledge base that it represents can be leveraged in future dental clinic design work with much less cost and time then would be required for a firm getting a fresh start in dental clinic design.  This also reduces or eliminated the need for the services of a specialized dental design consultant--most typically from outside of Alaska--which may be out of financial reach for smaller practices or non-profits.