The internationally renowned healthcare architecture and planning initiative at Texas A&M University’s College of Architecture just turned 40 years old, and the college’s Center for Health Systems & Design (CHSD) will mark the occasion with a celebration in San Antonio on Monday, Feb. 26, in conjunction with the International Conference and Exhibition on Health Facility Planning, Design and Construction (PDC).

The Texas A&M architecture program’s focus on healthcare design began in 1967 when Professor George J. Mann introduced what has been described as an especially adept studio to the emerging architectural specialization. In the four decades since, the Texas A&M architecture program has produced a whole new generation of highly nuanced architects who specialize in designing smart, high-tech healthcare facilities that nurture patient recovery while facilitating the numerous, ever-changing demands of modern medicine.

Over the years, College of Architecture students and faculty have completed more than 500 socially significant architecture-for-health design studio projects that have enhanced the health and welfare of people in need around the world, while providing unique opportunities for gaining practical, hands-on experience through “real-world” projects yielding consequential humanitarian results.

The Center for Health Systems & Design moved to the College of Architecture in 1994. Originally known as the Center for Health Systems and Technology, it was established by The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents in 1983 at the College of Medicine to coordinate interdisciplinary research and educational programs that transfer technology developed by disciplines outside medicine into healthcare design. When the center moved to the College of Architecture the focus changed to interdisciplinary health facility planning and design research, innovation and communication.

CHSD remains affiliated with the College of Medicine and includes faculty fellows from numerous disciplines. Their research interests range from the effects of stress on patients' health and well-being, to the design of healing environments for neonatal patients, children, the elderly, people who live in the Texas colonias and AIDS patients.

The primary CHSD activities include a professional associates program, curriculum development, a health lecture series, support of health-related research and design projects and a graduate certificate program in Health Systems and Design. The certificate program, established in

1998 and available to students in any graduate degree program at Texas A&M University, emphasizes a cross-disciplinary perspective, yet also ensures that students develop an in-depth understanding and ability within a specific body of knowledge.

In 1999, CHSD faculty fellow George J. Mann, holder of the Skaggs-Sprague Endowed Chair in Health Facility Design, with his colleague, Yasushi Nagasawa, professor at the University of Tokyo, co-founded Global University Programs in Healthcare Architecture (GUPHA), an international organization dedicated to the promotion of professional architecture-for-health higher education programs and the dissemination of their research to the health design industry. The ultimate goal of GUPHA is improved health care for the citizens of the world. Since founded, the organization has grown from two to hundreds of member universities.

In 2004, for his life long accomplishments in architecture-for-health education, Mann received a special recognition award from the American Institute of Architects-Academy of Architecture, which was presented by John D. Pangrazio, president of the American Institute of Architects/American Hospital Association.
 
Many other CHSD faculty fellows have gained international acclaim for their work in healthcare planning and design, and the Texas A&M College of Architecture has produced more than 20 graduate fellows in the American Institute of Architects/American Hospital Association.
 
Former CHSD students and friends will gather at the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel from 6 - 8 p.m., along with colleagues attending the international conference, which is sponsored by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) of the American Hospital Association (AHA) in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects Academy of Architecture for Health (AIA/AAH). 
 
The public is invited to the event.  For more information or to RSVP, contact Judy Pruitt at jpruitt@archmail.tamu.edu.
 
For more information on Center for Health Systems & Design and updates on the February 2007 40th anniversary of healthcare design and planning initiatives at the Texas A&M College of Architecture, visit the CHSD website at: http://archone.tamu.edu/chsd/

Learn more about Global University Programs in Healthcare Architecture http://archone.tamu.edu/college/
news/newsletters/winter2004/GUPHA.html.

Contact:  Phillip Rollfing, proffing@archone.tamu.edu, 979-458-0442 or Judith White, jwhite@univrel.tamu.edu, 979-845-4645