Not long ago, I had occasion to visit Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion—a nearly 80-year-old architectural landmark that looks remarkably young for its age. The look of the spare, rambling, one-story structure may not be for everyone, though. Leafing through comments in the guest book, I saw such irreverent take-offs on the Miesian “less is more” as “less is bore” and “more is less.”

The latter phrase, in particular, came to mind as we assembled this first-ever December issue of Healthcare Design, and moreover prepared for a 2007 in which we will introduce two new issues of the magazine: February and June, in addition to the new issues introduced this year, October and December. Editors always worry about everything—that’s what we’re paid to do—and this does provoke concern: By adding issues, do we risk diluting the end product? Can there be too much of a “good thing”?

Having just finished laying out our plans for next year, I feel confident. If done right, this growth should be organic.

There is no question that, over the past six years of our publishing history, we have gradually expanded the scope of our coverage. We’ve moved beyond a primary focus on showcasing buildings and projects to delving into the complexities of planning, technology adaptation, construction technicalities, green design, and coordinated project management. We’re finding what all specialists tend to find as they focus in on their fields: more depths, facets, and issues available to explore than were ever imagined.

We submit that our more frequent forays in 2007 into the healthcare design field will illustrate this. Without giving away the entire game plan, we’ve discovered areas of design technology, planning, and construction that have yet to be explored in depth in our publication (and, I believe, in others, as yet). We also look forward to further exploring the international arena and its fresh perspectives on healthcare design.

Meanwhile, there will be no abandoning our original mission of showcasing exciting new projects. There is no shortage of them, to be sure—witness, the 178 entries in our September Architectural Showcase issue drawn only from the past year; many of these projects offer new lessons and insights that will further enlighten our readers.

So, we hope that the ghost of Mies won’t haunt us when we proclaim that, for Healthcare Design, “more is better.” We will be working hard in 2007 to prove it. HD

RICHARD L. PECK, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF