WHR Architects’ 2014 Tradewell Fellowship Awarded to Renee LaCroix

08/15/2014 | WHR Architects

WHR Architects has named Renee LaCroix as the 2014 recipient of the firm’s highly regarded Tradewell Fellowship Program. 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 work closely with senior firm leaders and experience significant interaction with clients. WHR’s Tradewell Fellowship, now in it’s 17th year, has been an important milestone in the careers of its dedicated and successful alumni.

“Working on my Master of Architecture degree at Texas A&M University, I had the good fortune to study with Professor Kirk Hamilton, who helped me understand the complexities and challenges of healthcare architecture,” said LaCroix. “It is an exciting practice that gives me the opportunity to make a difference through my career. I am confident that my time as a Tradewell Fellow will give me a depth of experience that would take years to gain without it. ”

LaCroix comes to the Tradewell with an outstanding educational background having earned her Master of Architecture, Magna Cum Laude, and a Certificate in Health Systems and Design at Texas A&M University, where her final study: “Reducing Stress in Cancer Care: An Environmental Journey” explored a new approach to treatment embedded in a natural environment of suburban Houston. In addition to her educational achievements, LaCroix was an intern at WHR Architects in the summer of 2013, where she won the respect of her colleagues with her hard work and dedication.

“Renee LaCroix is joining an exemplary group of healthcare architects,” says WHR President and Chairman David Watkins, FAIA. “Every year talented graduates come to learn and grow and, at the same time, they enrich our practice and the profession. It’s an increasingly diverse alumni, educationally and geographically, with much to contribute as practitioners and as mentors.”

Shuo Yang, who recently completed his Tradewell Fellowship, researched sustainable healthcare design and its impact on high-rise buildings. While conducting this research, he worked with senior medical planners at WHR as well as healthcare leaders in the Texas Medical Center on projects for Memorial Hermann’s Heart & Vascular Institute and Houston Methodist Hospital’s North Campus Expansion. “WHR’s Tradewell Fellowship has been a great start for my healthcare design career, providing me unique opportunities to expand my understanding of the healthcare industry.”

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 and interior design 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 150 people in Houston and Dallas, Texas, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Copenhagen, Denmark, the 35-year-old firm is working on projects worldwide for top–tier public and private education and medical institutions. Learn more online at www.whrarchitects.com or follow @whrarchitects on Twitter.