South Dakota Lab Features Natural Beauty of the Black Hills

Lab owners Aaron and Jennifer Garner had spent the last seven years working as an in-house lab for Aaron’s brother’s dental practice, Orchard Meadows Family Dental. And while they loved working chairside with patients, they didn’t love the small, cramped space in which they functioned. Since Aaron’s brother, Dr. Mark Garner, was also looking to grow his practice, they decided to go all in and build a new home for both the practice and the three-person lab from the ground up.

After purchasing a 1.5-acre lot in Rapid City, SD, they began working with an architect and contractor to design the state-of-the-art, 11,000-square-foot dental office with an adjacent 1,800-square-foot laboratory. “Our former lab had been squeezed into two small rooms on the second floor of the practice and we were ready for a bright, airy, open space that allowed us to easily move between the different parts of the lab,” says Aaron.

It took about one year for design and construction, and then Aaron and Jennifer, along with their digital designer and nephew, Noah, took over the interior design to create their dream lab, doing most of the work themselves and incorporating elements of the unique beauty of the nearby Black Hills.