Chris Hoal, AIA, Healthcare market design leader, Gresham Smith (Nashville, Tenn.)

Chris Hoal has spent more than a decade at Gresham Smith, most recently transitioning from serving as the Nashville healthcare studio design leader to the healthcare market design director.

Throughout his work, Hoal is devoted to both the art and process of design through his design philosophy “Design the Process, Process the Design” methodology, which emphasizes the way a good process leads to consistently better design output.

“Design isn’t a ‘black box,’ it gets better when you include more people with diverse perspectives, and it gets better when you resist the urge to rush to conclusion,” he says. “Taking the time to establish a shared perspective and integrate users and stakeholders into the design team and enables us to provide clear, high-quality solutions.”

He brings a process-oriented design approach that fosters collaboration and emphasizes critical thinking about building performance, the environment, and the social fabric and health of communities.

For example, as the design lead for Baptist Health Care Brent Lane’ s new 57-acre healthcare campus in Pensacola, Fla., he was instrumental in proactively performing an energy analysis and climate risk assessment to ensure the new buildings could survive potential major weather events in the future.

Maintaining a resiliency mindset as a core principle throughout the entire project, he implemented a design plan for a structure capable of withstanding 170 mph winds and worked with civil engineers to elevate the finished floor elevation above the 1,000-year storm level.

He also led the site design effort that preserved the many live oaks, laurel oaks, and magnolias that occupy the site, some of which are hundreds of years old. The groves of trees were transformed into a “town square,” placing nature at the center of the campus and gifting a new green public space to the city of Pensacola.

Leading the design on the LEED Gold-certified Kaiser Permanente Lutherville-Timonium Medical Center in Baltimore, Md., his vision included green roofs outside the oncology clinic infusion area to provide a positive distraction for patients and to reduce the urban heat island effect and manage rainwater.

In addition, a 40,000-square-foot solar panel array generates 20 percent of the hospital’s energy, and the prominent passive solar shading reduces energy consumption by 4 percent.

Colleagues appreciate his ability to motivate and guide project teams as well as balance the big picture with project-specific details, ensuring every element of a project is executed to the highest standard.

Furthermore, he takes advantage of opportunities to share his insights and thinking with others in the healthcare industry through published articles and conference presentations as well as serve as a mentor within the firm and the industry at large.

Click here for more on all the 2024 HCD 10 winners.