2021 Year in Review: Jason Costello, AIA, LEED AP, Partner and Associate Principal, Margulies Perruzzi

What was your greatest professional accomplishment or most notable project, deal, or transaction in 2021? Working with Array Architects, we renovated a 24,000 s/f behavioral healthcare unit at Sanford Medical Center, creating 40 new beds across two floors, and designed a five-bed emergency department acute psychiatric unit. We took an active role working with clients to meet the demands of the pandemic and assisted Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, MA on a 3,100 s/f COVID-19 testing lab. My colleague John Fowler was part of an AIA Task Force, providing a new tool for public officials to quickly identify buildings suitable to be adapted for patient care.

What is the best advice you have received, and who was it from? “We may all be in the same storm, but we’re not in the same boat.” MP is committed to giving back to the community by promoting a spirit of giving and engagement that extends the core values of our company’s culture into the communities where we live and work. Throughout the pandemic we have remained engaged with charitable organizations, such as the United Way and Franciscan Children’s Hospital.

What was the biggest lesson you learned while working during the pandemic? We have always designed for future flexibility and the pandemic gave us new insights into how we approach design as well as influencing facility master plans. Our healthcare clients need the ability to expand critical care programs to accommodate surges and to respond to future pandemics. Our clients are investing in universal in-patient bedrooms which can be used for medical/surgical patients, transitional care, or ICU/isolation rooms depending on the situation. We have seen significant growth in our healthcare studio and have worked closely with clients to translate operational and clinical challenges into solutions through innovative facility design and planning.