“Visionary leaders, back-breaking effort and team building” are three of the characteristics of successful high-profile projects, according to authors Donald McKahan, AIA, and Francis M. Pitts, AIA. The two have been researching and lecturing at industry functions for years, and Health Facilities Management magazine caught up with them recently. Click here for full article.

McKahan and Pitts selected a handful of “icon” projects, among them Ellerbe Becket’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Opened in 1999, the 2 million-sf high-rise teaching hospital and medical office building is a truly a “vertical hospital.”

“Architects and planners for Northwestern Memorial’s 17-story replacement hospital were required to coordinate and collect project data form over 125 different user groups,” write McKahan and Pitts.

Before you can design an icon building, there’s team building. “Northwestern Memorial Hospital involved the marriage of four architectural firms, various engineering disciplines and a construction manager. To better serve the project, architects formed a joint staff of over 100 individuals who shared offices on-site with the client.”

The pair concluded that icon projects can dominate a consultant’s reputation. “Ellerbe, VOA and HOK’s shared involvement with the Northwestern Memorial Hospital project provided important industry recognition for each firm. Five years later, each of these firms is doing major academic medical centers.”

“In the end, the final destinations were worth the long journeys. Health care architects, clinicians and patients are all well-served when vision, creativity and commitment combine to create an iconic hospital.”

An innovator since its founding in 1909, Ellerbe Becket is a leader in architecture, engineering and the construction industry with office locations worldwide.

Contact: news@ellerbebecket.com