HOUSTON, Texas — FKP Architects continues to expand its Dallas office, adding a key senior leader. James Kendrick, AIA joins the firm as vice president and senior project manager for the healthcare sector. 
In this role, Kendrick will be responsible for project leadership, strategic client relationship development and overseeing adherence to healthcare design best practices. He brings deep healthcare design experience to FKP’s clients, developed over his 27-year career focusing on health facility planning, design and operations.
“We know James has the expertise needed for this key role,” Diane Osan, chairman and chief visionary officer for FKP, said. “It’s his leadership, his passion for mentoring others and his ability to problem solve and create unique solutions that we think our healthcare clients, and our Dallas healthcare team, will welcome and benefit from.”
Kendrick will step into the project manager role for Parkland Hospital, Dallas, Texas, currently in design. He will also be working on the Cook Children’s Medical Center in Ft. Worth and the JPS Medical Home in Arlington. JPS Health Network is pilot testing the medical-home model; the Arlington project is a renovation of an Albertson’s grocery store into a primary care home with women’s health, a pharmacy, diagnostic services, dental services and vision care.
Kendrick was assigned to a healthcare project for St. Francis Medical Center in Roslyn, New York in 1987 and recognized his calling. He found the project type both challenging and rewarding, and opted to specialize in the healthcare arena. During his career, Kendrick has worked on over 7,500,000 square feet of healthcare spaces, ranging from full health systems, to specialty outpatient centers and senior care centers. He works to educate others on evolving trends and healthcare design best practices, previously as Medical Forum Chair for AIA Seattle and the Health Facilities Chair for AIA New York City and now as a member of AIA Dallas. He will be creating a Health Facilities Committee to bring educational/professional events to the Dallas Metroplex.
Over the course of his career, Kendrick advocated for advancements to technology and patient care models. He was an early adopter of CAD, involved in the design of private-patient room nursing unit models, incorporated barrier-free design principals and utilized Lean design practices in the 1980s and promoted Evidence-Based Design and green-design principals in the early 2000s.
Kendrick is an alumnus of the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at the University of Houston.
