Healthcare Design - March 2019 - 56

fac e

Time

HOW HAS WORKING WITH
STUDENTS CHANGED HOW YOU
VIEW YOUR OWN WORK?

As practitioners, we can lose sight of our audacious
ideas because we are so focused on the daily demands of
a project. It's inspiring to engage students and see how
their energy can affect our day-to-day work.

ON INDUSTRY TRENDS
Many of our clients
are looking for
ways to provide resources
for behavioral and mental
health patients. I see this
as a program area where
architects and designers can make a social
impact. I'm in the midst of
organizing a healthcare
design charrette, dubbed
"Purposeful," for the
American Institute of
Architects' Los Angeles
chapter. Participants

will discover how a
decommissioned hospital
facility that has outlived
its original function
can be reimagined and
repurposed for new uses,
one of which is a mental
health and homeless care
center.
Oddly shaped
patient units that
respond only to travel distances but not flexibility
and function.

F AV O R I T E ...
Q U O T E "My life
is my message."-
Mahatma Gandhi.
My boyfriend and
I posed with it
when we visited the
Gandhi Ashram in
Ahmedabad, India.
W EEK E N D
A CTI V I T Y Fitting
in some weekend
fitness before checking in on the progress of our house
renovation.
CO L O R I'm a graduate from University of
Michigan, so I have to say Maize and Blue!
GU I LTY P L E A SUR E Watching "Fixer Upper" with
Chip and Joanna Gaines.
A PP Plant Nanny reminds me to drink water
throughout the day.
S N A C K W H E N Y OU T R AVE L I always have a
protein bar on hand.
HO B BY Indian dancing. I've been doing it since I
was a kid, and it has been a great form of exercise
and stress relief. It just makes me happy!

PARINI MEHTA

Associate principal,
CO Architects, Los Angeles
didn't know
healthcare design was a career
option when she graduated from
Southern California Institute of
Architecture in 2005. Instead, she says she
stumbled into it after working on her first
construction project during her first job at
Lee Burkhart Liu (now Perkins Eastman): a
Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center
replacement project. Drawn to the field's
programmatic and strategic requirements, she
decided to dedicate her career to healthcare,
joining CO Architects in 2014. When she's
not serving as project manager on a variety of
projects, including an outpatient surgery floor
at Cedars-Sinai Advanced Health Sciences
Pavilion in Los Angeles and the 350-bed
replacement facility for Scripps Mercy San
Diego Replacement Hospital, she focuses
her time on fostering the next generation of
architects through a summer program she
started for female high school students. The
program introduces them to career skills such
as creative thinking and analytical problem
solving. "I hope introducing young women to
architecture helps to promote more women
joining the field," she says.-Anne DiNardo

YOU'RE REMODELING YOUR
H O U S E . W H AT ' S B E E N T H E
B I G G E S T C H A L L E N G E S O FA R ?

Everyone always asks if it's difficult designing the house
with my boyfriend because he's also an architect. The
answer is no. If we don't agree on something, we itera te
on the idea until a solution comes up. For me, working
with residential engineers and contractors has been
difficult. We work with the best of the best at CO Architects,
and the rigor is not quite the same for a small house.

PARINI MEHTA

CI TY T O V I S I T Mumbai, to connect with family
and experience an urban energy like no other.

THREE UNEXPECTED ITEMS ON
YOUR DESK

1 The book "Michigan Modern,
An Architectural Legacy."

2 Stack of sticky

notes. I keep all
of them from my
team's morning
scrum sessions. By the end of a
project, the stack gets really big.

3 My vision board. I created one
last summer to visualize what I
want in life.
D O G O R C AT ?

Cat. Our cat, Persi (a Russian blue), is staying with
my brother while our house is under construction. We
can't wait to get her back!

FICTION OR NONFICTION?

Nonfiction. I especially love memoirs. Reading
perseverance stories reminds me how amazing the
human race is and how much adversity one can face
and overcome. I also love to read about people from
different backgrounds and their journeys.

HOW DID YOU MAKE YOUR
FIRST DOLLAR?

Babysitting and shoveling snow. I earned enough
money to go on a school trip to Africa.

THREE WORDS TO DESCRIBE
YOUR DESIGN AESTHETIC

56

MARCH 2019

"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)," by
Meatloaf. It's the longest song ever ...
MEHTA IS SERVING AS PROJECT ARCHITECT AND PROJECT MANAGER
ON A NEW 45,000- S QUARE -FOOT OUTPATIENT SURGERY EXPANSION
PROJECT AT CEDARS - SINAI ADVANCED HEALTH S CIENCES PAVILION
IN LOS ANGELES.

HCDMAGAZINE.COM

I F I WA S N ' T A N A R C H I T E C T I
WOULD BE ...
A showrunner for a program like "Saturday Night
Live." I thrive on adrenaline and excitement.

CO ARCHITECTS

1 minimal
2 modern
3 subtle texture and pattern

YOUR GO-TO KARAOKE SONG?
http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM
Healthcare Design - March 2019

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