A bunch of doctors, an architect, and a bridge builder: Designing for Health

And here we are:

Designing for Health – AIA DC – L to R: Whitney Austin Gray, PhD, LEED, Scott Kratz, Loretta DiPietro, PhD, Nancy Skinkle, Andrea Swiatocha, Ted Eytan, MD, Carl Elefante, FAIA, LEED AP O&M, at the District Architecture Center, Washington, DC USA View Designing for Health – AIA DC 48105 on Flickr.com

As the title of the post says, health gets to be produced by more than just physicians, and that’s a good thing.

If you haven’t visited the brand new George Washington University School of Public Health, you should, but if you can’t you can view its health features through my camera lens:

It was designed to be the face of public health, much as American University’s School of International Service was designed to be the face of social justice.

Make sure you also check out the beautiful designs for the future 11th Street Bridge (@DCBridgePark), whose winner will be announced on October 16, 2014.

And along the way, empower and engage architects and designers to think about health, and to see a return on investment that extends way beyond the day a building opens. Sometimes, you’ll have to do that 8 years in advance (!) as Loretta DiPietro, PhD, did.

And one more thing, design buildings as part of places, as one audience member said, that make you want to stop and enjoy them on your way somewhere.

You can tell by my route to work this morning that DC is a place like that (I stopped to be inspired by the Thurgood Marshall Center) 🙂 .

More on last night’s panel here: Why a health system cares about the buildings it doesn’t build: Moderating AIA-DC Panel 10/8/14 | Ted Eytan, MD

Ted Eytan, MD