Perkins&Will recently promoted Brenda Smith to principal of the firm’s health practice. With over 25 years of design experience, combined with seven years as a registered nurse, Smith is a one-of-a-kind health practice leader — and now a principal.
Smith connects the firm’s research labs to the daily design and planning work of the New York health practice, ensuring clients have access to the most advanced strategies, insights and tools and, ultimately, client success and satisfaction. She began her career with Perkins&Will at the firm’s Atlanta, Georgia studio in 2008 and moved to New York in 2019.
Long before coming to Perkins&Will, Smith was a nurse in radiology oncology — an experience that had equipped her with invaluable insight into how design impacts care staff and patients. Later, she worked at a major pediatric healthcare system, where she managed the design of a three-campus replacement hospital expansion. This gave her firsthand knowledge about what makes successful client-designer relationships.
Smith’s award-winning projects, both built and unbuilt, include the CARTI Cancer Center in Little Rock, Arkansas; The Medical University of South Carolina and Pearl Tourville Women’s Pavilion in Charleston, South Carolina; King Abdullah Specialist Children’s Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Hamad Medical City Medical Education and Simulation Center in Doha, Qatar.
