Blogs

Letter from the 2026 AAH President, Pierce McVey, AIA

By Alison Karfeld posted 14 days ago
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Dear Academy of Architecture for Health members, It is both humbling and invigorating to serve as the 2026 president of the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health. A big thank you to those preceding me during my tenure on the board—Ellen Taylor, Kenneth Webb, Michelle Trott, and Southern Ellis. Their leadership has been inspirational and leaves big footsteps to fill. As I reflect on and share the importance of the AAH to the greater health care design community, I am struck by the organization’s longevity and impact. Along with our pillar organizations—the American College of Healthcare Architects (ACHA), The Facility Guidelines Institute ...
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From the President's Desk

By Southern Ellis, AIA posted 12-09-2025
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Dear Members of the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health, How will we define 2025? Personally speaking, I’ll define the year, in part, through the lens of a newfound love of running. Most mornings, before the kids wake up, I stride into the darkness with a tiny flashlight and a series of pace and mileage goals for my morning run. Some mornings my legs feel great, my lungs are alive, the temperature is perfect, and the wind is at my back. Other mornings are a struggle. There are setbacks and injuries, but ultimately, progress each day is built upon the many steps and miles that have preceded. Time on the trail has become cherished time of silence, prayer, ...
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Letter from the 2025 AAH President, Southern Ellis, AIA

By Alison Karfeld posted 01-24-2025
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Dear Members of the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health, I’m honored to serve as the 2025 President of the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health in this milestone year—our 80th Anniversary! It’s humbling to reflect on the Academy’s legacy over the past eight decades—shaping spaces that bring healing, hope, and life to our communities around the world. As I looked back at our history, I was struck by the list of past presidents, beginning with Carl A. Erickson, who led the organization in 1945, when it was then called the Committee on Architecture for Health. Imagine the sense of purpose our founders must have felt in that transformative year—when World ...
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From the President's Desk

By Michelle Trott, AIA posted 02-27-2024
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I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to serve as president for the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health . I want to extend my gratitude to the past leadership who have brought me to this exciting point in my career: Kenneth Webb, Ellen Taylor, Brenna Costello, Kirsten Waltz, Tushar Gupta, and Vincent Della Donna. The energy and passion that they and this organization possesses is like no other. My goals for the year are simple yet bold. First, we need to raise awareness in the health care community of the importance of this Knowledge Community. The AIA Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) has over 9,000 members. If you don’t know, our mission is ...
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From the President's Desk

By Omri Webb, AIA posted 01-01-2024
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As we close out 2023, I want to celebrate the accomplishments of the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health, and the incredible work, passion, and dedication of each committee, committee chairs, and board members. We have continued to invest in climate action initiatives, awards, scholarships and fellowship programs, mentorship opportunities, and the development of affinity groups that focus on infusing EDI across all our committees. I applaud each of you for your efforts and the tireless dedication you have given to make this year a success! Of course, none of this would be possible without the continued support of our sponsors: Steris’ 35 years of support ...
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From the President's Desk

By Omri Webb, AIA posted 01-18-2023
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As I look back on my career journey over the last 20-plus years, the opportunity to serve the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health as the 2023 President is a great privilege and honor. This organization has helped shape my passion and dedication for health care design starting from my time as a student and committee member involved in the STERIS HCD Student Design Charrette, working with local KC committees, and building a network of colleagues and close friends at industry events across the country. There are too many individuals to thank within the academy who have impacted my growth and success, but this drives my passion for giving back. I look forward ...
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From the President's Desk

By Ellen Taylor, AIA posted 12-07-2022
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As we close another year, it’s a great time for reflection and acknowledging our accomplishments for 2022. A Reset Year The Academy (AAH) last mapped out a strategic plan in 2016, so we took the chance to review and update it. We adjusted some alignments for our board liaisons, consolidating our many recognition programs – awards, scholarships, and fellowships, and grouping our programs for networking connections within our community – the Components Council (formerly known as the Advisory Group), the Colleague to Colleague (C2C) Mentoring Program, and the Next Gen Committee, which had their visible relaunch at the 2022 Healthcare Design Expo and Conference ...
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From the President's Desk

By Ellen Taylor, AIA posted 02-09-2022
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It’s hard to believe that we’re already more than a month into 2022 with two years of unexpected twists and turns due to SARS-CoV-2. Backing up to go forward For the past two years the Academy, along with other organizations, learned to adjust. Through the leadership of past presidents Kirsten Waltz and Brenna Costello, we adapted. We continued to fulfill our mission to create educational and networking opportunities through virtual platforms. Whether participating in the AIA COVID-19 task forces, piloting a colleague to colleague mentoring program, offering online Academy updates, or continuing our exceptional webinar opportunities, we leveraged our strengths ...
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Colleague to Colleague Program

By Michelle Trott, AIA posted 12-29-2021
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2021 piloted the Colleague to Colleague (C2C) mentoring program with an overarching goal to engage members of the healthcare architectural community to further their development and network with others. The shared vision of C2C was a response to our members commentary on how to diminish isolation and provide skill development during the pandemic. The following mentors and mentees were part of this successful year: Jennifer Aliber, Steve Langston, Steve Templet, Peter Bardwell, Kim Haewon, Ryan Turner, Jill Bergman, Sean Bujold, Haley Peluso, Chris Dohar, MD Mazharul Islam, Holly Harris, Shane Labenz, Gary Smith, Lina Chan, Steve Seely, Naren Anandh and Marissa ...
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Code Tip of the Month: March 2021

By Tina Duncan, AIA posted 03-19-2021
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Code Tip of the Month International Code Council: Publishing 2021 Codes Presented by Jeff O’Neill, AIA, ACHA, CHFM The ICC model codes are adopted by most, if not all, local jurisdictions for construction, maintenance and fire safety of buildings, including hospitals. The ICC has just published their 2021 codes and localities are poised to adopt them, especially if they have “evergreen” clauses for automatic adoption. There are healthcare specific chapters in the International Building Code (IBC), including chapter 407 Group I-2 (Hospital and Nursing Home) Occupancies and chapter 422 Ambulatory Care Facilities. It is important to understand these ...
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NextGen Update: September 2020

By Jacob Richie posted 09-25-2020
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This quarter the NextGen Committee welcomed new Delegates to the “front porch” of the Academy through a Delegate Kick-off meeting on September 18th. Delegates will play a vital role in connecting our events and resources with local firms and universities in hopes to increase our influence across the United States. We are also excited to partner with the Codes and Standards Committee for our CodeWise Passion : Health Design Video Lecture Series. Anyone interested in joining future NextGen events should contact aah@aia.org to join the Passion:Health Design listserve.
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Meet the 2020 U40 recipient

By Maggie Brown posted 09-25-2020
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Marybeth Dietz, AIA is a highly skilled senior project architect and project manager at SmithGroup in Chicago, IL. With more than 15 years of experience, she has spent the last 12 working with healthcare clients. She is practiced in leading complicated projects for prestigious health systems, most notably Northwestern Medicine. Marybeth is currently the Committee Co-Chair of the Advisory Group for the Academy of Architecture for Health, which connects all local AAH components across the country. She recently served as AIA Chicago’s Healthcare Knowledge Community Chair where her passion for sharing healthcare knowledge grew exponentially. Marybeth has been actively ...
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Healthy environments and the impact of COVID

By Jennifer Cagide-Alexander, Assoc. AIA posted 06-12-2020
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As the COVID-19 pandemic threatens the lives and wellbeing of citizens across the world, there is growing evidence that our unhealthy environment has an impact on making us both more susceptible to becoming infected with COVID-19 and also more likely to experience severe outcomes. For example, people who are exposed to air pollution are 15% more likely to have increased risk of severe outcomes or death from COVID-19. COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on the way we live our lives. As we shelter in place and disrupt our daily work and leisure routines, our new routines have had positive and negative effects on our environment. Studies have shown a reduction ...
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Homeschooling, managing stress and our wellbeing

By Mayda Colon posted 06-12-2020
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Burnout, before the pandemic was something we were mildly aware of, unless it was ourselves who were stressed, tired, and wanted to give up. Then it is in the forefront of my mind like the song that gets stuck in my head, repeated like a mantra, over and over. The Washington Post’s article The coronavirus pandemic is pushing America into a mental health crisis suggests that during the pandemic we are seeing unprecedented increase of cases of mental health and emotional distress cases. This suggests that we are also in need of building our mental and emotional resilience more than ever. But how? Today we are not only dealing with work stress but stress ...
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Regulatory environment in Florida for healthcare construction will be different POST-COVID

By Michael Compton, AIA posted 05-13-2020
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Regulatory environment in Florida for healthcare construction will be different POST-COVID By Michael Compton, AIA, ACHA, EDAC On Tuesday, April 21, 2020, the AAH committee of the AIA Orlando component held their monthly Meeting in the Virtual featuring guest speaker, Scott Waltz, Agency for Health Care Administration’s Office of Plans and Construction Bureau Chief. When asked about replacing their physical plan submissions process with digital, Mr. Waltz had this to say: "For the past few years, we have been working with a vendor to develop a system to replace our current project tracking system. The system under development will enable facilities ...
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Letter from the Editor: April 2020

By Kimberly Montague, FAIA posted 04-22-2020
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I trust this message finds you safe and healthy in your socially-distanced workplace. I must say, I never in my wildest dreams, or nightmares, would have imagined a time period such as this in our profession. Many of us who have been practicing for several decades, have seen the ups and downs of the economy. We have weathered the storm; modified our practices; and adjusted our points-of-view. But this time is different. This time our struggle is affecting our health, well-being, sense of belonging and personal lives in many more ways than financial. We are all juggling separation of our personal and professional lives. How many of you have now seen your co-worker’s ...
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Additional healthcare facility-specific resources

By Maggie Brown posted 04-21-2020
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COVID-19 resources for healthcare facilities AIA Alternative Care Sites assessment brief and tool [link] The goal of these assessment tools is for architects to help hospital and other public health agencies identify appropriate adaptive reuse sites such as convention centers, sports arenas, community centers, hotels, dormitories, or other spaces for occupancy during the pandemic. Industry Resources reviewed and referenced in AIA Alternative Care Sites assessment tool: HHS Federal Healthcare Resilience Task Force Alternate Care [link] CDC Considerations for ACS [ link ] IAHSS ACS – Med-Surg Capacity [ link ] ASHRAE Technical Resources ...
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COVID-19 ArchMap

By Maggie Brown posted 04-03-2020
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COVID19 ArchMap Mapping COVID-19 related architecture projects The ArchMap has moved. Visit the new page to see the latest project data > The COVID-19 ArchMap provides information on health care facilities—including alternative care facilities—around the globe responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. AIA’s task force developed the map—in partnership with the Kansas University Institute of Health + Wellness Design—to help identify solutions to growing bed surge needs and to support the development of design best practices for alternative care sites that support pandemic response. Architects, designers, engineers and facility owners are asked ...
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Code Tip of the Month: March 2020

By Tina Duncan, AIA posted 02-28-2020
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Code Tip of the Month By Tina Duncan, AIA Whether you are using the digital madcad version or the hard copy bound book of 2018 Edition FGI Guidelines , it’s important to remember that there is an errata sheet for FGI and also ASHE Standard 170. The text within the body of the madcad version of FGI Guidelines does not get updated to reflect an errata, however at the top of the page there is a list of sections that have errata. View the Errata and Addendum sheets > When using the hardcopy bound book, it is recommended to print out the errata sheet and to insert it into the book just inside the front or back cover (both Hospital and Outpatient ...
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NextGen 2020 Q1 Update

By Eileen Trimbach, AIA posted 02-28-2020
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NextGen 2020 Q1 Update By Eileen Trimbach, AIA The NextGen Committee begins another year serving as the “front porch” for the Academy —engaging young people to the AAH community and creating a gathering ground to grow together. A key portal to connect and learn for the committee is the Passion: Health Design Video Lecture Series. Anyone interested in joining Passion: Health Design lecture series, contact Jacob Richie at Jacob.Richie@perkinswill.com . Lecture series will begin on February 27th with a lecture from Caroline Brigham on her research on Healthcare design in Africa and India. There are several opportunities to encourage the next generation ...
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