New Healthcare Fellowship Honors Visionary Architect E. Todd Wheeler

Perkins+Will has established its first healthcare fellowship for recent design school graduates, aimed at harnessing the power of creative thought and innovation to define the future of healthcare design.

The E. Todd Wheeler Fellowship honors the design luminary of the same name, who transformed healthcare architecture—and healthcare delivery—in the mid-20th century.

“E. Todd Wheeler’s dedication to innovation defined a whole generation of healthcare design, and continues to influence the profession today,” says Phil Harrison, CEO of Perkins+Will. “His work, which included more than 70 completed hospitals and nine schools of medicine, boldly charted new territory and set a precedent for progressive, outside-the-box thinking. Our fellowship aims to continue his legacy through the work of a new generation of innovative healthcare designers.”

The fellowship: continuing Wheeler’s legacy

E. Todd Wheeler was a principal at Perkins+Will from 1936 to 1944 and again from 1957 to 1972. Although he passed away in 1987, his contributions continue to shape the way healing environments are designed and used by patients and caregivers.

As part of a yearlong curriculum at Perkins+Will, recipients of the fellowship that bear Wheeler’s name will explore some of the same questions that he sought to answer over the course of his career:

• Is the effect of the physical environment on human beings adverse or favorable? Can it be measured?
• Can a hospital building possess the quality of living things, such as flexibility, adaptability, mobility, resilience, the ability to grow, to regenerate itself?
• What does the future hold?

How the fellowship works

Up to six graduate interns per calendar year will be awarded the E. Todd Wheeler fellowship. They will work out of one or more Perkins+Will studios globally under the direction of a healthcare design leader. Fellows will also have the opportunity to meet and network with each other. Every effort will be made to ensure the group of fellows is as diverse as possible.

“The E. Todd Wheeler Healthcare Fellowship offers graduates of architecture and interior design programs an exceptional opportunity: The chance to continue their research while also gaining professional design experience alongside some of the field’s most accomplished healthcare professionals,” says Robin Guenther, principal.

Application information

The inaugural E. Todd Wheeler Healthcare Fellowship will begin in May 2019. The application period runs through Jan. 31, 2019.

For more information, or to apply, visit www.perkinswill.com/healthcarefellowship.