The Vision Care Institute

The Vision Care Institute is a 7,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art training center for optometry school graduates and eye care professionals.  The facility was designed to support curriculum requirements for instructional teaching and hands-on, interactive learning. Located at the center of the facility is a 1,000-square-foot training conference room equipped with large, multi-screen projection walls, video-conferencing, and the latest audiovisual technologies.  To enhance the quality of the large training room, special lighting was provided to simulate exterior lighted windows within the “windowless” room. The room also features a 30-person conference table finished with metallic automotive paint. This unique table, also designed by RS&H, provides a sculptural, yet functional center piece for the room.

Other spaces in the facility include two small training conference rooms, five exam rooms, three future exam rooms, two eye lanes, a dispensing laboratory, a shower bathroom facility, a catering room, three administration offices, and an internet lounge area. Vistakon estimates that more than half of the nation’s 1,100 optometry school graduates will attend The Vision Care Institute.  Expansion plans for The Vision Care Institute are anticipated in the near future.

Vistakon Sullins Auditorium
This 100-seat auditorium is the centerpiece of the 14,000-square-foot Vision Care Institute. This space was carved out of an existing one, located in an office area adjacent to Vistakon’s Jacksonville, Florida manufacturing facility.

Attendees typically spend three days attending lectures, seminars and workshops. As the only meeting space in the Institute with windows, it was decided early on that views to the exterior would be an integral part of the auditorium’s design. Motorized fabric shades were selected which allow filtered views of the landscape beyond while preventing glare from low-angle sunlight.

We selected tiered seating in order to improve visibility. Working around existing structural beams, HVAC ducts and sprinkler piping, designers fitted a series of indirectly lighted ceiling coffers to provide glare free lighting and an increased sense of height within the space.

Controls provide the flexibility to meet a variety of program functions and presentation methods within the auditorium. Accent lighting is available to put emphasis on a lecturer. The lower levels of lighting facilitate viewing of video productions. Higher levels allow for note-taking and video conferencing. Depending on preference, the lighting can be dimmed or raised at will.