It's been over a decade since Goodskin Dermatology opened its flagship office in Clackamas, OR. Starting in a space that already felt a little cramped, the practice has grown substantially and the time had finally come to seek out more space. The beloved Gustav's, a mainstay German restaurant famous around Portland, was selling, and although a bit out of the ordinary, the dermatology practice could see the potential.

The nave-style layout of the building lent itself to a wonderful clinic layout, so the challenge with this project was the transformation of a dark, Bavarian restaurant, complete with industrial kitchen, into an airy space full that could handle the heavy workflow of a bustling medical practice. What resulted was a thing of functional beauty!

To help with this monumental task, we hired SEA, Scott Edwards Architecture, since this building was going to be a full tear out and remodel. With a massive kitchen, three built-in coolers, grease dumpster, and terribly corroded sewer lines, demolition took a whole four months to complete.

The space was cramped with booths, bar top, and corbels, with lots of dark wood trim everywhere. While great for a German biergarten, it all needed to be lightened up. We tried to salvage the stained glass windows, which turned out to be stained plexiglass, so into the bin they went.

SEA took the style and branding Goodskin have built over the past 10 years and incorporated it seamlessly into the new architectural details of the space, transforming a dimly lit German banquet hall into a light, bright, modern, northwest, dermatology clinic.

Exterior paint colors were kept modest but chosen to compliment the practice's existing style.