How Great Design Can Help Heal

“I encourage you to find your “superpower” -- that thing that gets you out of bed in the morning and drives you to make meaningful change.”

I’m often asked how I got into healthcare architecture. I admit that I never knew there was such a thing when I was in architecture school and had always envisioned myself as a cross between Howard Roark and Mike Brady; designing gleaming high-rises in the sky by day and returning home to a family at night. However, like many recent grads, I needed a paycheck and so I settled into a firm that assigned me to its busy healthcare studio and thus began my healthcare journey.

I soon learned how design makes a difference and great design helps heal.

Over the course of more than 20 years, I have been fortunate to have been involved in some iconic and groundbreaking healthcare projects, including a LEED Platinum Children’s Hospital and a hospital built entirely on “friction pendulum bearings,” which allows the entire building to move 30 inches in an earthquake and remain fully operational after an 8.0 on the Richter scale.

Along the way, I realized and understood that the one constant is change and that change is not always a bad thing. In fact, in many cases change can push us out of our comfort zone and help us to achieve things we never thought possible. Without change, I would never have had the opportunity to work on such great projects with really talented people who have made me the person I am today. I encourage you to find your “superpower” -- that thing that gets you out of bed in the morning and drives you to make meaningful change.