Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
Texas A&M’s College of Architecture was well-represented in Healthcare Design magazine’s 2008 “Twenty Who Are Making a Difference” list, with one professor and two outstanding alumni earning distinction.
For its annual end-of-year list, the magazine asked recognized architects, interior designers and consultants in the healthcare design profession to nominate fellow professionals they saw making a significant difference in advancing the design of healthcare facilities in 2008.
Kirk Hamilton, FAIA, FACHA, an associate professor of architecture and associate director of the college’s Center for Health Systems and Design, made the list.
“He has elevated the significance of evidence-based design to a baseline requirement for healthcare architecture today,” said Annie Coull, principal and director of healthcare planning for Anshen + Allen, who nominated Hamilton for the honor. “He has underscored the importance of integrating healthcare operations and culture with facility design.”
Also on the list is Jean Mah, a principal, member of the board of directors, and national healthcare practice leader for Perkins + Will in Los Angeles. She earned a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from Texas A&M in 1971, is an Outstanding Alumna of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture.
Mah, nominated by Virender Ahuja of Kurt Salmon Associates, has led the planning on projects for leaders in the healthcare industry such as the UCLA Medical Center, the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine, and Catholic Healthcare West.
The other College of Architecture outstanding alumnus making a difference in healthcare design is Joe Sprague, FAIA, FACHA, a principal and director of health facilities at Dallas-based HKS, Inc. He received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Texas A&M in 1970.
Sprague, nominated by Dan Noble, FAIA, of HKS, has spent his 36-year career devoted to the practice of healthcare architecture. He’s the co-founder and current president of the Facility Guidelines Institute, which aims to provide continuity in the healthcare facility design and construction guideline revision process, functions as a contractual coordinating entity, and enhances the content and format of guidelines publications that encourage and improve their application and use.
Sprague is a former president of the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health and a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives. In 2008, he was chosen as president-elect of the American College of Healthcare Architects’ Board of Regents.
