Lynn Davis, OD, opened the doors to her practice Modern Eyez in 2003 after nearly a decade working for others. The 1,370 square feet office space was sufficient for her cold start. “Eventually, I realized that we would need a bigger space to make the practice more valuable for when it came time to sell. If I owned the building, that would be even better,” Dr. Davis recalls.

In 2005, Dr. Davis purchased a half-acre plot of land down the street from her office space. “It was on a corner with good visibility, and ultimately, I didn’t want to move too far,” Dr. Davis says. But as she started to look for financing for her building in 2008, the economy crashed and she had to shelve the project.

Dr. Davis made do with the office space she had for another six years until late in 2014 when she began the financing process again. She worked closely with the project architect to design the flow of the office, which she describes a race-track setup. “We wanted to create a useful space,” she says, so the reception area flows back around to a back hallway to the contact lens area with exam rooms along the way. It was helpful to have a local expert on her team to navigate regulations about sprinklers and fire doors in the most affordable fashion.

Dr. Davis found her reliable construction team through a connection she made with a local business coach. They broke ground in June 2015, and the new building was complete by November.

The process took longer than she expected, but she was given plenty of time for her favorite part of the project: the redecorating phase. Dr. Davis kept herself busy on weekends during the construction period looking for ideas and ordering items for the office. She also took a trip to Philadelphia to visit the Eye Designs studio, and she added a variety of different displays to the optical area. “I was buying artwork and furniture, and it was beginning to take over my house,” Dr. Davis says, laughing. Since she so thoroughly enjoyed the decorating and design process, Dr. Davis says that she is considering coaching others on the remodeling experience.

Now the name Modern Eyez aligns with both the interior and exterior of the building—whereas the adobe-style, typical New Mexico construction of her former office never quite matched her name. The move to the new office took about a week, and Dr. Davis temporarily used her old frame displays until her new ones arrived in January of this year. With a stained cement floor throughout the space, Dr. Davis chose to keep the space open and airy with whites and grays as well as turquoise and black accents. She’s doubled her number of exam rooms and her space, now at 3,000 square feet. The new office also allows for better utilization of her Optos Daytona and Marco TRS autorefraction systems.

Dr. Davis says that the response to the new office has been very positive in the community, and she held a grand opening and trunk show event on April 8 with scheduled events every few hours for children and adults.

What surprises her the most is the number of people who have asked if the practice is new in town. “Where we were before, the parking lot was angled down from the road,” she says. “These people were driving by us for 10 years, but there was no visibility with the old space. It’s been a big opportunity for change.”