LPA Healthcare Approaches Market with Sustainable Designs

September 4, 2014 2123 Views Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, HHSC, James T. Powers, Joining Forces Campaign, Kohala Hospital, Kristin Rising, restrooms, Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital, Second Chance Act, Thomas Jefferson University, Western U.S., William DeJong

IRVINE, Calif. — Irvine-based design firm LPA has formed LPA Healthcare, a new studio that will manage the design of acute- and specialty-care facilities and offer sustainable innovations.
The company has hired Rick Wood, AIA, a 25-year veteran architect and previous partner at Wood Burghard Swain Architects (WBSA), headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif. Wood will become a managing principal, and eight members of Wood’s staff will join him at LPA, which has already been working with WBSA on health care projects for about a year.

“In many ways, we’re addressing what the marketplace is telling us — that there really is an opportunity here for us,” said LPA President Dan Heinfeld, FAIA, in a statement. “We think that the pairing of Rick and our firm give a really exciting new opportunity in the marketplace to address the industry’s changes.”

Founded in 1965, LPA has more than 200 employees with multiple offices in California cities, including Irvine, Roseville, San Diego and San Jose, as well as an office in San Antonio. The firm provides services in architecture, sustainability, planning, interior design, landscape architecture, engineering and graphics. LPA said in a statement that there is no sustainability director working at the company; instead, more than 80 percent of the professionals working there are LEED accredited, including the human resources director, CFO and several other support staff.

The newly formed LPA Healthcare’s mission is to bring a “unique approach to design that has not been seen in the industry before.” The studio hopes to assist health care facility administration and staff with healing patients and increasing wellness in more efficient ways without sacrificing the quality of care and patient experience.

According to Karen Thomas, CID, LEED AP BD+C and principal at LPA, teams of in-house architects, designers, medical planners and engineers will be collaborating in real-time, with a focus on sustainability, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Working as a team will create environments for healing spaces based upon the patients’ and providers’ needs.

“A key challenge is being able to appropriately and cost-effectively interpret a brand image within a health care space. LPA brings a keen expertise to clients in this area, with almost a retail approach to branding and to facility design that’s rarely seen in health care facilities,” Thomas said in a statement.

Previously, LPA worked with Metagenics to incorporate their brand at a new, 45,250-square-foot headquarters facility in Aliso Viejo, Calif. LPA said the new facility weaves the Metagenics brand and vision in every aspect of the project through the use of graphic displays and signage.

“The integration of LPA’s experience serving the developer industry to find cost-effective solutions, coupled with the technical experience of providing health care design services with ever-increasing complexity will bring something to the table, which I believe will be very beneficial to our clients as the cost of health care delivery continues to rise,” Wood said in a statement.