Local Dental Office Takes Flight

After retiring four years ago as the creative arts director for the North Bellmore School District, Gary Gaccione continues to share his talent at Creative Arts Design Studio, Inc. in Bellmore, where he works primarily with medical offices and hospitals all over the region to renovate their interiors.

Within the past year, Gary Gaccione completed one of his most talked about offices, the interior of Dr. Stephen J. Boral's orthodontics dental office in Franklin Square. There, patients do not enter a drab medical office; they enter Boral International Airways, a full-fledged interior of an airplane, complete with flight attendants, movies, comfortable seats and jet portholes.

"When I met Dr. Boral, he told me that he wanted his new office to reflect what he does for his patients," said Gaccione. "That is, he transforms them; he takes them to a new destination in their life; he makes them beautiful. Dr. Boral actually suggested the airline motif and I took it from there."

Though located at 380 Dogwood Avenue in Franklin Square, Dr. Boral said nearly 25 percent of his patients are from Garden City.

The 1,700-sq. ft. office is designed with three-foot curved laminate panels to simulate the interior of an airplane. Gaccione found a California supplier where they purchased 18 airplane seats with the correct fabric and color scheme for the room. Overhead, the ceiling has soffit boxes with recessed lighting. At the end of the room a big-screen television is mounted and surrounded by a cloud mural. Along the wall, portholes look out from the passenger's plane seat; toward the back are scenes in the sky and as you move forward the windows show the plane closer to the ground, then landing.

"I snapped the photos for the portholes from a trans-Atlantic flight that I took," said Gaccione. "I wanted to get different heights so some of the photos that we used are in the clouds and others are closer to the ground. We blew up the photos, affixed them to foam board and used them for the view from the portholes."

To complete the design, Gaccione removed doors in the office and replaced them with curtains, just like an airplane cabin. He added a flashing sign where patients enter the doctor's room. All of Dr. Boral's employees wear airplane uniforms and they wheel around a cart in the waiting room just like flight attendants on a real plane. Even Dr. Boral's Web site has been redesigned to reflect the airplane theme.

"The new office really helps our patients relax," said Dr. Boral. "They don't feel like they are in a doctor's office. The seats are very comfortable and we have them arranged in rows, just like on an airplane, but with more legroom. The kids come in, buckle up, put their tray tables down, and start doing their homework or watching the big screen TV. We also have the rolling cart, filled with snacks like peanuts, Cheetos, Doritos and Cracker Jacks, refreshments like juice boxes, crayons and coloring books, and of course toothbrushes and toothpaste."

Since the new office was unveiled, it has become an attraction where people snap photos and people from the neighborhood stop in just to see the office.

"Our patients love the airline design and will actually take out their camera phones and send pictures to their family and friends," said Dr. Boral. "You really look like you are on a plane. One husband who was at work got very upset when he thought his wife had taken the kids to Disney World without his permission. We have other patients who ask us if we have their lost luggage from another flight. We get lots of airline jokes and lots of smiles."

The entire project took six months from start to finish and four months to install. Most of the work was completed at night or on weekends when the electricians and Formica installers could quickly move around the office without patients. While Gaccione wouldn't divulge the cost of the renovation, he did say it was not costly. "Great ideas do not have to be expensive," he said.

Gaccione continues to focus his interior design/renovation business on the health care market. He completed a renovation for Dr. Salvatore Varano, a dentist located in Garden City, as well as another dentist in Brooklyn. He has also completed work at Flushing Hospital Medical Center.

"After seeing Dr. Sal Varano's beautiful new office, I asked him who his decorator was. He gave me Gary Gaccione's phone number and together we collaborated on an airline-themed waiting room," Dr. Boral said.

Gaccione said he's pleased the redesign has been such a success.

"Dr. Boral sent me a very kind note in which he said the redesign was so amazing, it's become a showplace and he especially liked my attention to detail. I believe that this redesign shows that you can go to the dentist's office and it can be fun," Gaccione said.