Andrew Bowers, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, cLSGB, associate, Wilmot Sanz (Gaithersburg, Md.)
Andrew Bowers has focused his career on healthcare design, joining Wilmot Sanz in 2011 and garnering experience on a variety of projects, including cancer centers, large academic medical centers, and smaller community hospitals. His next endeavor was embracing a focus on behavioral health. In January 2017, he was appointed to lead the firm’s behavioral health design studio. In his work, he draws from his personal experiences with anxiety and depression to share insight with project teams and advocate for design solutions that address the entire patient and family journey, promote empathy, provide patients with a calming sense of control, and address stigma.
For example, working on the Professional Services Building project at Inova Health System’s flagship Fairfax Medical Campus in Fairfax, Va., completed in 2018, Bowers led research-based best practices and behavioral health modeling to create a treatment platform, which includes inpatient behavioral health and substance abuse units, nested within the existing facility. Committed to conserving resources and maximizing existing assets, he’s also guided the firm’s renovation work, including a current phased 50,000-square-foot renovation of the University of Virginia’s Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center in Charlottesville, Va., where Bowers led the multidisciplinary Lean process planning to create an operationally efficient and patient-friendly pod-based design.
Beyond the projects he manages, Bowers is a proponent of adopting new technologies and design methodologies. His pioneering of innovative visual meeting tools has served as a valuable resource during the current pandemic, allowing project teams to continue to operate nimbly and effectively. Furthermore, he drives the firm’s participation in community outreach and mentors junior staffers—furthering his reach outside the office walls.
