NEW YORK, N.Y. — The Charlotte, North Carolina, office of Perkins Eastman announced Mark Searls, AIA, NCARB, has joined the firm as an associate principal. Searls joins with more than 29 years of design and project leadership of healthcare projects worldwide, in addition to science and technology, academic and commercial projects.
David Segmiller, AIA, managing principal of the Charlotte office, says, “Mark Searls has a strong background in the design of projects that enhance the quality of the user experience. In particular, his designs for healthcare environments reflect a facility with state-of-the-art design and planning concepts and innovative thinking for the future. We are very pleased to have him join the Charlotte office of Perkins Eastman.”
Prior to joining Perkins Eastman, Searls was a design director and design studio leader at FreemanWhite, where some of his clients included Mount Sinai Health System, Grady Health System and the Lahey Hospital & Medical Center. During this time, Searls developed conceptual design for an emergency department room of the future, which allows for future technology and highlights the current thinking in the design of emergency departments. This research was patient-centric and focused on the collaborative approach among physicians as a teaching model. Previously, Searls worked as a design principal at Flad Architects and a design director at Ellerbe Becket Architects, among others.
Searls is a former adjunct assistant professor in both the Undergraduate Design Studio and the Graduate Design Studio at the University of Minnesota‘s College of Design.
Searls received a Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University of Colorado-Boulder, a Bachelor of Architecture and a Master of Architecture from University of Illinois-Chicago. He is a registered architect in the states of Georgia, Minnesota and North Carolina, and he is a member of the American Institute of Architects. Searls also holds NCARB certification.
