Christine Hester Devens, IIDA, LEED AP
Associate principal, interior project designer, AECOM (Minneapolis)

Who she is: Devens’ 25-plus-year-career has focused almost exclusively on healthcare design, allowing her to foster long-term relationships with several clients and organizations, including Park Nicollet Health Services (Minneapolis). She’s also taken an active role in many in-house projects, developing AECOM’s patient experience mapping process and spearheading the firm’s Patient Room of the Future project. As a champion of healthcare design outside the office, she’s served as a guest critic for University of Minnesota Architecture and Interior Design senior thesis studios, presented at industry conferences, and served as a guest blogger for Healthcare Design.

Year in review: She wrapped up a busy year with Park Nicollet, working on numerous projects, including the renovation of the Park Nicollet Family Birth Center; a $13 million renovation of the 8th floor inpatient telemetry unit at Methodist Hospital; and the new 28,000-square-foot Park Nicollet Women’s Center. As a senior interior designer on the award-winning Mercy Health West Hospital (Cincinnati), which opened in late 2013, she focused on patient spaces while also contributing to the overall interior design concept of the 250-bed greenfield community hospital.

What’s next: The coming year will continue to be active with projects for Park Nicollet, including the renovation and expansion of an existing patient tower at Methodist Hospital. Devens is also serving as lead interior designer on a new four-story outpatient building and cancer center for Sparrow Health System (Lansing, Mich.), and a renovation of the hyperbaric suite at Ministry Saint Joseph’s Hospital (Marshfield Wis.), which is scheduled for completion in the fall.

The HCD 10:

  • Architect: Paul Strohm, senior vice president and director of healthcare, HOK (St. Louis)
  • Researcher: Upali Nanda, vice president and director of research, HKS (Houston); executive director of the Center for Advanced Design Research and Education (CADRE)
  • Interior designer: Christine Hester Devens, associate principal and interior project designer, AECOM (Minneapolis)
  • Association/foundation executive: Jennie Evans, 2013-2014 president, Nursing Institute of Healthcare Design (NIHD)
  • Facility manager: Sean Gouvin, director of facilities planning and engineering operations, Baystate Health (Springfield, Mass.)
  • Educator: George Mann, Ronald L. Skaggs, FAIA, Endowed Professor of Health Facilities Design, College of Architecture, Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas)
  • Provider: Matthew Gutwein, president and CEO, Health & Hospital Corp. of Marion County, and Dr. Lisa E. Harris, CEO, Eskenazi Health (Indianapolis)
  • Building professional: Sam Moses, superintendent, Balfour Beatty Construction (Dallas)
  • Rising star: David Grandy, associate vice president and managing director of strategic innovation, HDR (Omaha, Neb.)
  • Organization of the year: ZGF Architects LLP