WHR Architects' 2013 Tradewell Fellowship Awarded to Shuo Yang 2012 Fellow Akshay Sangolli Joins th

07/05/2013 | WHR Architects

WHR Architects has named Shuo Yang, LEED AP as the 2013 recipient of the firm’s highly regarded Tradewell Fellowship Program. “We are delighted to have Shuo Yang as this year’s Fellow,” said Lia Rodi, AIA,LEED AP, curator of the Tradewell Fellowship Program. “Already an award-winning designer, he has an impressive background in architecture in his native China and a strong commitment to healthcare design as evidenced by his graduate work at Clemson University’s School of Architecture.”

“My interest in healthcare architecture has grown out of my desire to create sustainable, healing environments that enhance quality of life,” said Shuo. “I see the Tradewell Fellowship as a bridge between my academic training and hands-on healthcare practice providing both the mentorship I seek and the opportunity to continue my research on sustainability.”

Although a period of internship is a long-standing tradition in the architectural profession, there are few Fellowships that offer recent graduates a focused opportunity to gain experience working closely with senior firm leaders and significant interaction with clients. WHR’s Tradewell Fellowship, now in it’s 16th year, has broadened the career horizons of each of its carefully selected Fellows. “While WHR has been fortunate to keep a good number of our Tradewells, including two who are now shareholders in the firm, we are equally proud of those who have followed other paths including medical practice,” adds Rodi. “It’s an increasingly diverse alumni, educationally and geographically, with much to contribute as practitioners and as mentors.”

Akshay Sangolli, who recently completed his Fellowship year, summarized his experience, “ I believe that the Tradewell Fellowship has definitely put my career on steroids and catapulted it forward by several years. I was not only able to continue my academic learning through evidence-based design research and collaborative dialogue, I also actively participated in the design innovation of several healthcare projects in the US and abroad.” Sangolli’s projects ranged from a large-scale master plan project at the Texas Medical Center to an intimate plan for a community hospital in the Texas hill country to an international hospital design competition in Denmark.

For Shuo, who holds the Master of Architecture + Health degree from Clemson University and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from North China University of Technology, his Tradewell year is just beginning. His goal, he said, is “to create friendly environments that heal and delight in sustainable ways.”

“We are all very proud to have Shuo represent the Graduate Program in Architecture + Health at Clemson as the current WHR Tradewell Fellow,” said David Allison FAIA, ACHA, the Director of the Graduate Studies in Architecture + Health program at Clemson. “Shuo was one of the most skilled, talented, thoughtful, rigorous and well-rounded students in his class. He is in a rare group of graduates who I feel can bridge the all too often gulf between medical planning and design. I am excited to know he will have the kind of post-graduate experience with good mentors at WHR that I encourage all of our graduates to seek out after graduation.”

“We welcome Shuo as he joins an exemplary group of healthcare architects,” says WHR President and Chairman David Watkins, FAIA.  “Every year these young stars come to learn and grow and, at the same time, they contribute to the knowledge base of the practice and enrich the profession.”

The yearlong Tradewell Fellowship was created to build careers of aspiring healthcare architects. Each year, the Tradewell Fellow is involved with clients in early master planning and design with a particular focus on healing environments and collaborative design methods as a part of their employment at WHR Architects. Fellows receive career guidance from leaders at WHR and a network of past Tradewell Fellows as well as scholarship to attend a healthcare architecture conference. Educational opportunities include: assisting with teaching a graduate level course on health facility planning, design and construction; participating in evidence-based design activities; and assisting members of the firm in authoring speeches, articles or books. Fellows are selected by the group of past Tradewells at WHR based on the strength of their design portfolios, letters of recommendation, essays of accomplishment, career goals and a commitment to healthcare architecture.

To learn more about the Tradewell Fellowship visit WHR’s website: www.whrarchitects.com/tradewell.

WHR Architects is a full service architecture, interior design and technology planning firm. The firm’s commitment to critical thinking is balanced by an ingrained empathy that results in both improved project outcomes and positive working experiences for their clients. With over 130 people in Houston and Dallas, Texas, and New Jersey, the 34-year-old firm is working on projects throughout the US for top–tier public and private education and medical institutions