Healthcare Design - April 2017 - 56

Time

OUTSIDE THE OFFICE,
Y O U ' L L L I K E LY F I N D M E . . .

ON INDUSTRY TRENDS
Hints of the return
to hand sketching
to communicate design
ideas and put some
human touch back into
a process that has been

largely taken over by
drafting programs.
If blue, burgundy,
and gray color
schemes make a return, I
will head for the exits.

Trying to get in a bike ride.
I signed up for an upcoming event in Minnesota
called 30 Days of Biking,
which encourages people
to ride their bikes every
day in April. Whoever had
the bright idea to schedule
this in April obviously
doesn't live here.

JIM LEWISON

Interior design director,
associate principal,
AECOM

F AV O R I T E . . .
VA C AT I O N S P O T A small former coal mining
village west of Montpellier, France. Our little place is in
the long row of white row houses in the far background
of the picture. The pro cyclist Jens Voigt is leading the
stage on the 50th anniversary of The Tour de France.
Q U O T E "Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."
-Oscar Wilde
M U S I C I A N / S O N G Elvis Costello, "(What's so Funny
'Bout) Peace Love and Understanding."
PIECE OF FURNITURE IN MY HOUSE A
very beat-up cupboard out of the old kitchen from our
100-plus-year-old family farm in Western Minnesota.
We found it in the granary.
T V C H A R A C T E R Minnesota State Patrolman Lou
Solverson in "Fargo"-he is my people.
L I N E F R O M A M O V I E "Rosebud," from "Citizen
Kane." It's a puzzle that's not solved until the last scene.
I love a good mystery.
S N A C K Wasabi peas!
WAY T O U N W I N D
A F T E R A L O N G D AY
Answering emails from the other
side of the planet.

schedule
takes him out of the office so often
that his AECOM coworkers came up
with the game "Where in the World
Is Jim?" to play during staff meetings. During
his 30 years with the firm (including at Ellerbe
Becket, which was acquired by AECOM), he's
traveled to Singapore, China, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, India, and
Turkey. Lewison will be earning more frequent
flyer miles in 2017 with several projects in the
works, including a 600-bed neuro-rehabilitation hospital in northeastern China, a 1,000-bed
government hospital in Jordan, and a 150-bed
behavioral healthcare specialty hospital in Saudi
Arabia. But not all of his travels are for work. Every July, Jim and his wife spend a few weeks at
their small village house in Southern France. "I
harvest the annual haul of weeds from the garden and catch a couple of segments of the Tour
de France," he says. -Anne DiNardo

APRIL 2017

THREE ITEMS ON MY DESK

1 roll of trace (I've been

2
3

accused of being a Luddite)
lava lamp for stress
reduction
Buddha head for serenity

JOB BEFORE JOINING AECOM
I worked at Cuningham Group in Minneapolis, where our
main project focus was GameWorks, a side project for
DreamWorks SKG and Steven Spielberg. The vision was to
develop futuristic, themed gaming venues for grown-up kids.
It taught me about the art of staging customer experience.

BIGGEST PET PEEVE WHILE
T R AV E L I N G F O R W O R K
Camping out on the floor of the airport trying to protect
the only electrical outlet in the entire concourse to charge
my laptop.

Being from the land of Minnesota Nice and Garrison
Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" radio show, I
wouldn't be inclined to speculate on that. Instead I'll go
with my Chinese Zodiac character as a monkey:

Back in the 1980s, the role of interior designer in medical design was too often limited to being in charge of the
room finish schedule. The evolving understanding of the
importance of the patient experience and how that can
influence outcomes (and bottom lines) has put the profession into more of a leader/collaborator role.

JIM LEWIS ON'S WORK

THREE WORDS MY COWORKERS
USE TO DESCRIBE ME

1 honest (strength)
2 impatient (weakness)
3 problem-solver (career)

BIGGEST CHANGE TO
H E A LT H C A R E I N T E R I O R D E S I G N
IN THE LAST DECADE

W H AT D R E W M E T O A C A R E E R I N
INTERIOR DESIGN

YINCHUAN BINHE INTERNATIONAL RIVERFRONT DISTRICT MEDICAL
CITY, IN NINGXIA DISTRICT, CHINA, WILL INCLUDE A 1 MILLION SQUARE-FOOT HOSPITAL AND IS EXPECTED TO OPEN IN 2020. AECOM WAS
ENGAGED BY BEIJING-B ASED WARNER ARCHITECTURAL STUDIO AS THE
INTERIOR DESIGN CONSULTANT AND LEWIS ON WAS LEAD DESIGNER.

HCDMAGAZINE.COM

I fell into it by accident. I attended the School of Art &
Design at the University of Michigan, and during a basic
studio class I encountered a professor in the interior
design program. His influence on me was a combination
of Zen master and Yoda, with such lessons as "sometimes
the thing left out is the important part." I decided to
change my focus from fine arts to design.

SHANGHAI WILLMORE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

fac e

http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM

Healthcare Design - April 2017

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