Twenty-five years ago, Healthcare Design magazine launched its debut issue featuring the very first Design Showcase. This special section represented the largest peer-reviewed healthcare design competition ever published, and we have continued that tradition annually.
In putting together this year’s Showcase for the August issue, I touched base with some of those who were there in the beginning. At the time, Medquest Communications LLC, which already produced magazines focused on designing environments for the aging population as well as behavioral health and addiction treatment centers, saw an opportunity in the acute healthcare sector.
Partnering with The Center for Health Design, this founding team sought to “help change the design thinking” in the industry with a publication that coupled content produced by industry thought leaders with projects that illustrated the possibilities, says Mark Goodman, HCD magazine’s founder and first publisher. “The idea was [to see] how can content drive change.”
When I asked Goodman about that first issue, he recalled the challenge with picking out a cover image. Back then, Design Showcase submissions were organized into individual binders that included project details as well as printed project images. After poring through dozens of binders and hundreds of images, Goodman says, the editorial team chose an exterior image of Cleveland Clinic Florida Hospital in Naples, Fla., displaying a fountain with a statue of two figures, one carrying the other.
“It showed empathy,” Goodman says, illustrating the magazine’s founding mission: “to celebrate spaces that create empathy for everyone inside.”
It’s a message that this industry has taken to heart over the years as it’s adopted new strategies, facility types, and project goals to deliver designs that prioritize safety, healing, and wellness for patients, families, and staff.
For more reflection on that transformation—as well as a look at that original cover—also check out Sara O. Marberry’s article, “Blueprints of Healing,” in the August issue. The feature article looks back on 25 years of the Design Showcase and some of the award program’s key milestones and memorable projects.
While it’s been a fun trip down memory lane these past few months, I’m looking forward to what’s ahead. Planning for the 2025 HCD Conference + Expo (Oct. 25-28 in Kansas City, Mo.) is in full swing, and you can find details about this year’s event and registration at hcdexpo.com.
We’re also hard at work planning coverage of this year’s Rising Star awards. Stay tuned for more exciting things to come!
Anne DiNardo is editor-in-chief of Healthcare Design and can be reached at [email protected].
