TECHNE DENTAL
Dr Ernest Ponraj
Rockville, Maryland
TECHNE DENTAL
Contractor: Liberty Construction
Architect: Liberty Construction
Interior Designer: Z-Dimensional
Millwork Vendor: Burger's Cabinets
Urban Edge Meets Clinical Artistry
Liberty Construction was proud to deliver Technē Dental, a one-of-a-kind dental practice and rotating art gallery for Dr. Ernest Ponraj at 4 Taft Court in Rockville, Maryland. As a design-build project, our team handled architecture and construction in-house and partnered with Zehra Arif at Z-Dimensional on the interior design. The brief was uncommon for a healthcare buildout: blend a working general and cosmetic dentistry practice with a contemporary fine-art gallery showcasing emerging local artists. Every framing decision, finish, and lighting layout in the suite ladders up to that fusion.
Where Function and Flow Take the Lead
The plan organizes around five treatment rooms (two hygiene, two general operatory, and a fully fitted surgical suite), plus an imaging room, a CEREC/display station, a sterilization corridor, lab, hand-wash, IT, breakroom, locker, mechanical, doctor's office, and a consult room plumbed for a future sixth treatment room. Throughout the back-of-house our crew installed Mohawk Hot & Heavy luxury vinyl tile in River Rock 832: large-format 36" x 36" tiles set in a monolithic quarter-turn pattern, fully glued, paired with Tarkett-Johnsonite Baseworks 4.5" wall base in Icicle. Standard 10'-0" drywall ceilings cover the clinical zones, with PT-2 Sherwin-Williams Dard Hunter Green (SW 0041) bulkheads breaking up the corridor planes against PT-1 Pure White walls.
A Fresh Standard in Healthcare Design
The art gallery is the heart of the suite. Our crew opened the ceiling above the gallery and reception to a 13'-4" exposed deck, painted out PT-1 Pure White, with Alcon Lighting suspended LED track at 3500K-4000K running over Gallery Wall #2 and Gallery Wall #3, two dedicated rotating exhibition walls Dr. Ponraj uses to feature artists like Simon Hennessy, Sage Barnes, and El Mac. The reception desk fronts a Genrose Stone + Tile Sculpture/Sign Deco feature wall: 16" x 32" white matte porcelain set vertical-stacked with minimal grout joints, with a Moz Designs perforated metal panel in gold metallic accenting the logo wall and Wilsonart Decorative Metals Satin Brushed Gold Aluminum (6258-00-419) wrapping select millwork faces. Custom 1" x 3" wood board cladding painted Dard Hunter Green carries the gallery aesthetic into the consult and corridor spaces.
Bringing Techne Dental to life
Technē, Greek for skilled craft, sets the tone for the surgical end and the casework. Treatment Room #5 is built out as a full oral surgery suite, while TR #1 to #4 cover hygiene and general cosmetic operatories with custom Burger's Cabinets millwork wrapped in Wilsonart Quartz Frost textured gloss laminate and Wilsonart Luna Sand solid surface counters. The reception centerpiece is an MSI Quartz Soapstone Metropolis waterfall countertop with a front-facing edge. Lighting is layered: Alcon LED track at 3500K-4000K in the gallery, LED 5" square recessed cans and 4-ft T-bar LED diffusing lens fixtures at 4500K-5000K throughout the clinical zones, plus a Mathew McCormick Studio Halo pendant and Hubbarton Forge Brooklyn Bath wall sconces in the public-facing rooms. All interior doors run 8'-0" with polished chrome hardware on PT-1 Pure White panels and frames. Plumbing is built around Vigo Gramercy 1.8 GPM stainless pull-down faucets at hand-wash and back-of-house and matte black tall single-hole fixtures at the vessel sinks. Liberty Construction is proud to have delivered this Rockville dental office buildout in Montgomery County, Maryland for Dr. Ponraj, a project where craft and clinical excellence share the same walls.
“Having a group like Liberty that had a background with dentistry… they knew the language I was speaking in terms of materials and how I wanted the operatories made.”