Lazy River Products

In 2018 2WR / MJ12 Design Studio was retained by William Cassotis to transform an existing 10,000 sq ft warehouse located in Dracut, MA into a state-of-the-art vertically integrated cannabis facility. The foundation to William’s vision was his Massachusetts Cannabis License which allowed for cultivation of up to 10,000 square feet of canopy along with manufacturing and a dispensary. So began the Lazy River Products journey.

Based on his vision, the team worked collaboratively in the development of the space program and initial cost models. The program illustrated the need to expand the existing warehouse. The expansion was accomplished by increasing the overall length of the building while adding a second floor. To ensure the building met cGMP standards while incorporating a highly functional flow, cultivation was placed on the second floor with the dry rooms. All post-dry operations including trim, extraction, edible and non-edible infusion, packaging and shipping/receiving were located on the first floor along with operations, back-of-house support, and the dispensary.

Cultivation includes single-tier mother with in-room clone and propagation. Veg is also single-tier and located adjacent to the mother room. The eight flower rooms are also single-tier. The cultivation area is served by purpose-built DX units with two units per room. The metric utilized in the design of the cultivation spaces allows for flexibility and change.

The dispensary is a key component to the facility design. William and his team desired to develop a design which captured a feel of the outdoors while illustrating the high-quality and professionalism of the brand. The design team worked through several iterations of the image and flow before finalizing the solution. The success of the brand along with the production of high-quality products have led to the expansion of Lazy River Products in 2023.

During the development of this project, I was a Senior Principal and Founding Partner of 2WR / MJ12. Beyond maintaining responsible control over project and document development, my direct responsibilities included programming, conceptual design, team coordination, and construction administrative services.