Introduction ― 4 Selected Projects ― 8
The vanguard of advanced clinical care and discovery, academic medical centers are among the most complex projects in healthcare today demanding sophisticated, rigorous, and enduring design. Projects must solve for clinical function, building performance, and enhanced experience today and for the next 50 years of evolving medicine. Spanning as long as a decade from concept to completion, these projects are often components of large, multi-use campuses that must remain operational at all times.
Our work underpins the scientific progress needed to help cure illness in more advanced ways, and to treat previously untreatable conditions. It facilitates new work flows in response to advanced models of care, and supports new technology and materials management systems.
We design for translational, personalized, and precision medicine, allowing for meaningful “on-stage” communication between caregivers and patients, as well as “off-stage” collaboration. Our projects create places that inspire caregivers to do their best work—efficient, effective, and connected workplaces enable successful patient care, research, and education for faculty, learners, fellows, and clinicians.
Our projects protect and nurture human health and well-being through sustainable, resilient design strategies. Carefully considered design interventions, from daylit workspaces to places for physical activity and healthy materials, promote healing and vitality.
Client: MaineHealth Maine Medical Center
Size: 280,000 square feet (26,013 square meters)
Completion Date: 2024
Sustainability: LEED Gold ®
Awards:
National Healthcare Design Award, American Institute of Architects/Academy of Architecture for Health, 2025
Citation, Healthcare, AIA New England, 2025
Best Healthcare Award–Large, IIDA New England, 2025 Winner, Building Division, AGC Build Maine, 2025 Award of Merit, Illuminating Engineering Society, 2025
User-Centered Award, Symposium Distinction Awards, Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo, 2024
Category Winner, Academic/Teaching Hospital, IIDA, 2024
Honorable Mention, Hospital Setting, Healthcare Environment Awards, The Center for Health Design 2025
Best of Year Honoree, Healthcare, Interior Design, 2024
Notable Project, Maine Real Estate & Development Association (MEREDA), 2024
A soaring seven-story atrium unifies the tower, helping patients, families, and staff across every level. Natural light and clear sightlines form a central hub that connects the public concourse with clinical spaces and lounges for visitors and staff.
Clockwise from Top Left:
Ninety-six universal patient rooms are designed to support different levels of care, including ICU treatment, without requiring layout changes. The design uses arc visibility and nested planning to enhance caregiver efficiency while providing privacy and family space.
Low-carbon materials, combined with Maine’s first whole-building life-cycle assessment, establish a new standard for sustainability.
Charlestown, Massachusetts
Client: Partners HealthCare
Size: 745,000 square feet (69,200 square meters)
Completion Date: 2013
Sustainability: LEED Gold ®
Awards:
Best Healthcare Design, IIDA New England, 2014
Honor Award, Healthcare Facilities Design, Boston Society of Architects, 2014
Award of Excellence, Modern Healthcare, 2014
Preservation Achievement Award, Boston Preservation Alliance, 2013
Acute Care Facilities Winner, Healthcare Environment Awards, Contract/CHD, 2013
Sustainable Design Award, Boston Society of Architects, 2013
The
To ensure the design met the unique needs of Spaulding’s patients, our designers spent time using wheelchairs in the built environment.
as they exercise in spaces with operable-windows and walk on the outdoor terraces.
Inpatient and outpatient gymnasia share equipment and are visually connected to clearly demonstrate treatment progress.
Reconnecting patients to the natural world is a critical component of the inpatient rehabilitation process.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Client: OU Medical Center
Size: 401,900 square feet (37,338 square meters)
Completion Date: 2021
Awards:
Honor Award, AIA Dallas, 2022
Best Project Healthcare, ENR Texas & Louisiana, 2021
The sparkling glass tower represents a commitment to advanced healthcare and pays tribute to the healing power of nature. Its design draws inspiration from the layered landforms of western Oklahoma, especially the shape of the well-known Gloss Mountain. As it rises skyward, the building transitions from solid to transparent.
The glass facade, inspired by Oklahoma’s Gloss Mountains, transitions from a solid base to transparent glass as it ascends.
Clockwise from Top Right:
A dedicated sterile corridor connects interventional radiology and the operating rooms on the second floor, making it easier for patients and staff to move between them. This design boosts efficiency and supports better trauma care outcomes.
Thirty-two new operating rooms across two floors increase the Trauma Center’s surgical capacity, allowing more patients to receive timely care. Adjacent Pre-op and PostAnesthesia Care Unit (PACU) areas support smooth patient flow and rapid recovery.
Durham, North Carolina
Client: Duke University Medical Center
Size: 611,000 square feet (56,764 square meters)
Completion Date: 2013
Sustainability: LEED Gold ®
Awards:
b.o.b. (Best of the Best) Design Award for Healthcare Large (> 35,000 SF), IIDA Georgia, 2015 Bronze Winner, Acute Care Category, Landscape Architecture Awards for Healthcare Environments, Vendome Group, 2013
A state-of-the-art facility including 160 critical care rooms, 16 operating rooms, and an imaging suite
The Medicine Pavilion expands surgical and radiology services by adding 160 critical and intermediate care beds, 18 operating suites, and a state-of-the-art imaging center for MRI, CT, and nuclear medicine.
― WHAT MAKES IT COOL
Designed to ensure that patients who need to transfer to other care environments can do so in just one elevator trip
Clockwise from Top Right: The ICU patient room provides views to courtyards and gardens, maximizing access to natural light and improving the speed of patient recovery; Two-story main lobby; The new patient rooms feature floor-to-ceiling glass and overhead boom service delivery to encourage the transition from bed positions that support enhanced caregiver access.
Client: The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Size: 1,600,000 square feet (146,645 square meters)
Completion Date: 2012
Awards:
Bronze Award of Honor for Interior Design, SARA NY, 2013
Merit Award, Large Health Care, Interior Design, 2012
Excellence in Design Citation, Institutional Architecture, AIA Maryland, 2012
Design Award of Honor, Society of American Registered Architects (SARA), 2012
― WHAT IT IS
An iconic new face for a world-class adult and children’s hospital, each with distinct identities and entrances, both with the same diagnostic platforms
Client: Rush University Medical Center
Size: 1,00,000 square feet (92,903 square meters)
Completion Date: 2012
Sustainability: LEED Gold ®
Awards:
National Healthcare Design Award, American Institute of Architects / Academy of Architecture for Health, 2014
Distinguished Building Award, AIA Chicago Chapter, 2013
Winner, Health Category, World Architecture Festival, 2013
Design Excellence Award, Divine Detail, AIA Chicago Chapter, 2012
Design Excellence Award, Interior Architecture, AIA Chicago Chapter, 2012
Best of the Year Honoree, Interior Design, 2012
Building Team Awards, Platinum Award, Building Design + Construction, 2012
― WHAT IT IS
A series of projects, including the iconic butterfly-shaped bed tower, that helps the campus meet the needs of 21st century urban healthcare delivery
― WHAT MAKES IT COOL
A focus on patient, family, and staff comfort inspired the design of the bed tower and interiors, both of which enhance health and wellness.
San Antonio, Texas
Client: University Health System
Size: 1,027,000 square feet (95,411 square meters)
Completion Date: 2014
Sustainability: LEED Gold ® Award:
Best Project, Health Care Category, ENR Texas & Louisiana, 2014
The tower includes 84 emergency center treatment positions, of which 10 are trauma rooms. Also included in the design are 420 new acuity-adaptable patient rooms and 35 operating rooms.
WHAT MAKES IT COOL
Floor-to-ceiling windows in The Sky Tower flood the interiors with natural daylight and offer expansive views to the outdoors
Charlottesville, Virginia
Client: University of Virginia Health
Size: 440,000 square feet (78,038 square meters)
Completion Date: 2020
Awards:
Gold Winner, Health Category, International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers, 2022
Category Winner, Healthcare, IIDA, 2021
Honor Award, Interior Architecture, AIA Chicago, 2021
Citation of Merit, Distinguished Building, AIA Chicago, 2021
Bronze Award, Healthcare, World Architecture News, 2021
Award of Honor, Architecture, AIA Virginia, 2021
Category Winner, Hospitals | Academic/Teaching Hospital, IIDA, 2021
Editors’ Pick, Healthcare, The Architect’s Newspaper, 2020
Best Health Care, ENR MidAtlantic, 2020
Honor Award, American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), 2020
Award of Excellence, AEC, 2018
― WHAT IT IS
A major expansion and renovation of a medical center on an urban campus
extends from
― WHAT MAKES IT COOL
The emergency department and patient tower have multiple features that are innovative to the field of patient care.
Client: Mayo Clinic
Size: 670,000 square feet (62,245 square meters)
Completion Date: 2008
Jacksonville, Florida ― WHAT IT IS
A place that brings together specialty physicians, researchers, and educators under one roof.
Beirut, Lebanon
Client: American University of Beirut
Size: 836,430 square feet (77,707 square meters)
Completion Date: 2019 (Design)
Through its unique use of a sloped site, project challenges traditional healthcare typologies to enhance patient outcomes and visitor experiences with compelling views, access to nature, dynamic public spaces, and daylight.
― WHAT MAKES IT COOL
A dramatic and meticulously designed light shaft carries daylight deep into the subterranean clinical floors.
Since 1935, we’ve demonstrated
that design has the power to make the world a better, more beautiful place.
That’s why clients and communities on nearly every continent partner with us to design healthy, happy places in which to live, learn, work, play, and heal. We’re passionate about human-centered design, and committed to creating a positive impact in people’s lives through sustainability, resilience, well-being, diversity, inclusion, and research. In fact, Fast Company named us one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies in Architecture. Our global team of 2,700 creatives and critical thinkers provides integrated services in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and more. Our partners include Danish architects Schmidt Hammer Lassen; retail strategy and design consultancy Portland; sustainable transportation planning consultancy Nelson\Nygaard; and luxury hospitality design firm Pierre-Yves Rochon (PYR).
For more information, contact us at: perkinswill.com/contact/