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When Susan Zemmel and Larry Schiff moved their dental office to 813 Bethlehem Pike, Erdenheim, they planted new trees that attracted song birds. Their neighbors were so pleased to see the new species that they sent thank you notes.
Last month, the owners of Schiff & Associates Aesthetic & Family Dentistry were recognized for another contribution to the area. On Community Day, Sept. 13, the Friends of Historical Bethlehem Pike presented its third annual Acorn Improvement Award to Schiff and Zemmel and their architect, Banny Jesudason of JLM Design Group on Germantown Pike.
The award honors property owners and designers who address historical preservation, pedestrian consideration, beautification, environmental improvements and appropriate economic development.
“It’s always nice to be recognized,” Schiff said at his office Sept. 17. “We very much support their efforts to get the Bethlehem Pike historical feel.”
“We think we did a good job fitting into the community,” Zemmel added.
Mimi Leitzel, the Wyndmoor-based interior designer for the project, nominated the building for the award in June. Leitzel, one of Schiff’s patients, heard about the Acorn Award and thought the property would be a great candidate.
“This building shows potential inspiration for other renovations on the pike, and provides not only a service to patients, but newly renovated spaces for other tenants to build thriving businesses,” she wrote in her letter of nomination to the Friends.
Schiff and Zemmel, who were married in 1986, bought the Bethlehem Pike property in 1990, although planning for the renovations did not begin until two years ago, when they had grown out of their space.
“It was an eyesore with old systems, and we wanted to be able to incorporate all of the new technology available in our field,” Zemmel said.
Not about to leave their strong ties with the Erdenheim community, Schiff and Zemmel explored ways to develop the property. The most viable option was a multimillion-dollar project to build on and around the current structure.
Workers broke ground in June 2008. Throughout the construction, Schiff and Zemmel continued their normal operations from their second floor office, as did the Twisters Wellness Center, located on the bottom floor of the building.
“It was a little bit of a challenging project for us, mainly because we had to add a third floor without adding a disturbance to the two lower levels,” Jesudason said in an interview Sept. 18. “We had to come up with a very unique structural system to construct a third level.”
This process included building a third floor supported by six corkscrew-shaped steel stilts, called helical piles, which were drilled into the ground. A concrete slab was placed on top of the piles, columns added and steel beams installed across the existing building to make the floor.
Then, the new and old windows had to be matched and everything with a stone base, Jesudason said.
“This approach still has a residential quality and scale, but is inviting and suitable for a commercial building solution,” Leitzel wrote in her nomination letter.
Schiff and Zemmel moved into the new third-floor office Jan. 20. The new space can accommodate modern and environmentally friendly technology. The interior is the ultimate in high tech, Zemmel said.
The office is completely digital, save for a back room with folders of hard copies of documents. All lights in the office are activated by motion sensors, and doctors use a digital X-ray machine because it emits less radiation and energy than other models.
“We are much more efficient now than before,” Schiff said.
Patients sit in ergonomic massage chairs during their appointments and can watch cable television — or the work going on in their mouths — on overhead monitors. The individual exam rooms are soundproof.
“When it’s comfortable for the patient and you take that stress out of the visit, everything is simplified,” Zemmel said. “You can offer the highest-quality dentistry available.”
The building also has its own water supply sanitized in a plant within the office. Everything in the sanitation room can be opened by the tap of foot-level lever or light kick with the knee.
The Acorn Award is on display at the coffee bar across from a bamboo fountain in the lobby.
“Winning the award is a great thing,” Jesudason said. “We honor that and hopefully it will give us the opportunity to reach out to other potential clients in the area who will look at the building and come to us.”
Both originally from New York, Zemmel and Schiff met when she was a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania and he was a faculty member. Their children were born here. Schiff played Santa Claus one year for the Erdenheim Civic Association and delivered presents to local children on Christmas Eve.
