Leading the way in Healthcare Design - March 2007

Interview by Darius Helm

Healthcare is the fastest growing sector of the commercial market, and the number one design firm in that market is Omaha’s HDR. Thanks in part to an aging population and an aging healthcare infrastructure, HDR’s growth has been meteoric since 1997, when it wasn’t even among the top 100 design firms in the U.S. Today HDR is in the top 10 overall, and the long term prospects for both the firm and the healthcare sector are brighter than ever.

HDR was founded in 1917 by H.H. Henningson as a civil engineering firm, and that part of its business still accounts for over half of its revenues. In 1956, the firm launched its architectural operating company and landed its first large project, the Omaha Federal Building. Within a decade, the firm was doing healthcare projects, the first of which was the Nebraska Methodist Hospital. Soon after, HDR was the biggest healthcare design firm in the nation, a position it has only strengthened over the years. In 1983, HDR was sold to France’s Bouygues SA. Thirteen years later, in 1996, CEO Richard Bell engineered a buy-back, making the company wholly employee owned.

Last year, HDR’s fees topped $54.5 million, and the installed value of its work—all 17 million square feet of it—rose to $1.7 billion. With a staff of 5,700, including 329 designers, and more than 140 locations, HDR works on projects in all 50 states and in 60 countries.

Last month we spoke with Barbara Dellinger, HDR’s head of healthcare interiors for the East Coast, to find out how the firm services this growing sector and what it takes to stay on top.

Dellinger chose interior design as a career when she was in the ninth grade and followed up with the interiors program at the University of Maryland. She joined HDR in 2004, bringing with her a vast range of experience, including stints with large and small design firms, with county government, with a furniture dealership and even with a 900 bed hospital, where she was head of design and construction for seven years.

Dellinger is actively involved in The Center for Health Design, a leader in evidence based design (see box below), and she sits on the group’s Environmental Standards Committee. She is also a founding member of the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers (AAHID), whose mission includes educating healthcare designers.

For the full interview, see the March 2007 issue of Floor Focus Magazine.

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