John Plappert, AIA, ACHA has joined HDR Architecture as healthcare planning principal based in the firm’s New York, N.Y., office. He is an award-winning architectural planner/designer and an accomplished author and lecturer on healthcare topics.
“John’s extensive experience designing healthcare facilities during the past 25 years has given him profound insight into the creation of healing environments,” said Chris Bormann, AIA, LEED AP, HDR’s Northeast healthcare principal. ”We are excited to have him as part of our team. He is well-respected for the creation of therapeutic spaces based on evidence-based design principles. He is also recognized as one of the leading pediatric healthcare designers in the country and has worked with a score of children’s hospital clients, including The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, ranked the #1 children’s hospital in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.”
Before joining HDR, Plappert was director of healthcare planning at RMJM Hillier, responsible for leading the planning and design of specialty healthcare projects. He has also served as director of healthcare planning at Francis Cauffman and as a senior vice president with Karlsberger Companies.
Most recently he completed the Certificate of Need planning and design work for the New Goldwater North Long-Term Acute Care Hospital/Skilled Nursing Facility and the Gouverneur Healthcare Services Expansion and Modernization Projects, both for New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation in Manhattan.
The projects will transform two existing hospitals into state-of-the-art settings for ambulatory and long-term care. His previous work also includes the planning and design work for Puerto Rico’s new 250,000-square-foot Comprehensive Cancer Center and planning the rehabilitation of the historic 1-million-square-foot Charity Hospital in New Orleans, La., which was closed in 2005 due to Hurricane Katrina.
Plappert has authored numerous articles and books on pediatric design, among them the chapter on interior design, furnishings and wayfinding in Designing the World’s Best: Children’s Hospitals (Images Publishing Group, January 2000), and has given various lectures such as “Extraordinary Spaces that Enhance Healing,” at the 2006 NACHRI Facilities Design Conference.
About HDR
HDR Architecture, Inc. provides complete design services to healthcare clients from more than 40 offices across the United States, as well as in Canada, the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates. It is recognized for the ability to plan efficient and healing spaces, from medical office buildings to community hospitals to hospitals that are icons of public health excellence that touch nearly every stage of human life. The firm is well-known as an innovator in building design for inpatient and outpatient healthcare environments, science and technology research, and civic facilities. HDR is one of the nation’s first “advocate firms” for the new Evidence-Based Design Accreditation and Certification (EDAC) program, and an endorser of the “Architecture 2030 Challenge,” an initiative designed to achieve a dramatic reduction in the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by changing the way buildings and developments are planned, designed and constructed. For information, visit www.hdrarchitecture.com.
