Corporate Headquarters Office & Laboratory Renovation

VisionFirst is the largest eye bank in Indiana, but also enjoys a national and international presence for providing eye tissue for transplants.  Their existing facility no longer adequately supported their growing business model from an operational perspective or a materials management and security perspective.  Therefore, they sought a new facility to meet their increasing demands and one that would also reflect their corporate culture and increasing brand awareness.

BSA won the opportunity to create this new corporate office and laboratory facility for VisionFirst.  It was critical to the leadership team at VisionFirst that the design and construction process be minimized for swift occupancy.  The team committed to streamlining the design and documentation process to facilitate a faster progression to completion and brought on a trusted contractor in a modified design-build type of process.

The purchase of the existing office building on Haven Point in Indianapolis was the first step for VisionFirst.  This building provided a vast opportunity to create a facility to meet all their current and future corporate, cultural, and business model needs.   It could provide what their old facility could not: open space for staff to work cohesively and efficiently on one floor, adequate space to facilitate their laboratory activities, and space to openly display and celebrate the exciting history and story of VisionFirst.

While VisionFirst will always be a part of the Lions Clubs International, this building represents the individual brand that is VisionFirst.  BSA worked with the VisionFirst leadership team to establish project goals and objectives that would guide the project throughout.  A critical component was not only a refreshed look and open work environment to support the brand, but making sure the systems put in place would function and operate correctly from day one.   The team also wanted to take this opportunity to fix some existing operational concerns, such as delivery and pick up security concerns.  They also wanted to make sure to be a Lean and operationally efficient as possible both in the office spaces and within the laboratory.

BSA quizzed the VisionFirst team through conversations and visual inspiration to understand how the name was established and how their brand was developed.  The design team then developed and defined an aesthetic to support those goals and branding elements.  This collaborative design process resulted in bright, colorful open spaces for staff to work cohesively and efficiently and bright, inviting spaces to house their laboratory activities.

The new ISO 6 laboratory has full-height glass windows so visitors can tour the facility without impeding on the clean room space.  It is also sized to provide adequate cleanroom space for expanded procurement activities.  The laboratory design offers a new ISO 6 training room for surgeons, gowning spaces, and proper storage for new and quarantined materials.   A large conference room to seat 50 is used for additional staff meetings and training activities. The new lobby and entry area the space openly displays and celebrates the exciting history and story of VisionFirst.