Image Gallery: A 'Happy Place' with Twice the Space

Thanks to the pandemic, most of us had lackluster birthdays and minimal celebrations during 2020—but not Laboratory Owner Lonni Thompson, CDT. On her birthday last June, she moved into what she calls her “dream laboratory.”

After 20 years in the same building, the space at Image Gallery in Dublin, OH, had become cramped and inefficient for the lab’s digital workflow. In addition, Thompson wanted an inviting space for patient consultations as well as an educational area for her team. When the space next door became available, she saw her opportunity and started the journey of revamping the entire facility, more than doubling the space from 1,500 square feet to nearly 3,200.

It started with a year’s worth of planning, beginning with a comprehensive analysis called a Workplace Factors Process. Facilitated by an architecture firm, Thompson and her six-person team spent a few hours talking through the lab’s mission and values, management structure,...