Speakers to discuss global healthcare facility design

The challenge of designing healthcare facilities in today’s world of accelerating change, uncertain economies and a growing population is the subject of this fall’s Architecture-For-Health lecture series at Texas A&M.

Most of the lectures are scheduled on Wednesdays at 11:30 a.m. in the Wright Gallery on the second floor of Langford Architecture Center building A. See the series brochure for a complete lecture schedule and locations.

Internationally recognized leaders in several disciplines, including public health professionals, architects, landscape architects, and health and hospital building contractors with considerable experience in designing and building health and hospital facilities all over the world will share their international expertise and experience in the lectures, all of which are open to the public.

Many architectural, landscape architecture, and construction firms are rapidly evolving their practices, said George J. Mann, professor of architecture, who organized the series, “Pitfalls, Problems and Opportunities in an International Architecture for Health Practice.”

“The world’s healthcare needs go far beyond just the design of health facilities to include planning, design and construction of healthy cities and healthy living, recreational, transportation and working environments,” said Mann, who developed the series as the holder of the Skaggs-Sprague Endowed Chair in Health Facilities Design.

Some firms, said Mann, have established offices around the world, while others have combined interdisciplinary clinical research medical groups with their practices.

“Still others have combined their interdisciplinary design capabilities with construction management, facility management and operation,” said Mann, “and others have integrated financial services for design construction and operation of facilities. Servicing the projects with experienced professionals is also a challenge for these firms’ human resource departments.”

Competing for and effectively undertaking international projects is very difficult and fraught with problems, pitfalls and opportunities, said Mann.

The series’ keynote address will be presented by Chuck McDaniel, managing principal of the SWA Group in Dallas at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 5 in the Wright Gallery. McDaniel, a landscape architect and an outstanding alumnus of the Texas A&M College of Architecture, has designed projects built on five continents and 22 states.

“I see project development as a series of independent tasks,” said McDaniel. “Architecture creates the structures, civil engineering brings in infrastructure, interior design shapes the architecture from the inside out, and, in the key stroke, landscape architecture unifies the disparate interests of each function.”

One of the highlights of this fall’s series is a roundtable discussion of international healthcare design by members of the [Center for Health Systems & Design’s] (http://chsd.arch.tamu.edu) Health Industry Advisory Council at 10 a.m. Nov. 2 in the Langford B exhibit hall.

Other speakers this fall include:

• Jorge Vanegas, dean of the College of Architecture, Ward Wells , head of the Department of Architecture, and George J. Mann , lecture series coordinator, will discuss the importance of international programs to the college, Aug. 29;
• Jim Henry and Tom Braud , of HDR Architecture Inc., discussing current issues for international healthcare design, Sept. 12;
• Craig Beale , healthcare group director at HKS Inc., discussing working and learning on 6 and 1/2 continents, Sept. 19;
• Irvin E. Richter , chairman, CEO of Hill International, discussing healthcare facility construction, Oct. 3;
• Kurt Rockstroh of Steffian Bradley Architects, discussing the health needs of Great Britain’s military veterans;
• Craig Blakely , dean of the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health, discussing the need to analyze local conditions when designing healthcare facilities, Oct. 17;
• Harold Adams , chairman emeritus of RTKL and Texas A&M adjunct professor of architecture, discussing healthcare design in a multicultural environment, Oct. 24;
• Ronald L. Skaggs, chairman emeritus, HKS Inc., adjunct professor of architecture and Joseph G. Sprague, senior vice president of HKS Inc., discussing global healthcare architecture design practice, Oct. 31;
• Walt R. Massey and Rodney Moss of Balfour BeattyConstruction, discussing global solutions for maximizing the value of healthcare dollars spent in the U.S.;
• Paul Carlton , M.D., director, Office of Innovations and Preparedness, Texas A&M Health Science Center, discussing changes in healthcare, 2 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12 at a location to be announced, and;
• Roman Popadiuk of Bingham Consulting, former executive director of the George Bush Presidential Library foundation and former U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine, discussing communication challenges across cultures.

For more information, contact Judy Pruitt at jpruitt@tamu.edu or 979.845.7009.