(September 1, 2026. Sacramento, CA) Bill Rostenberg, FAIA Emeritus, an innovator, author, educator, and public voice who enhances the profession’s understanding of healthcare facility design is the 2026 AIA California Lifetime Achievement Award for Healthcare Facility Design recipient. Rostenberg’s influential work goes back more than forty years, to 1986, and the publication of his prescient monograph Design Planning for Freestanding Ambulatory Care Facilities—at the time the typology was in its infancy.
Rostenberg guided the design of myriad complex medical facilities, many of which are models of innovation today. His approach often led leaders of prestigious medical centers to ask him to steer the design of projects and initiatives. Many of his prototype design solutions responded to the cultural and political challenges experienced by surgeons and interventionalists. Their spaces are the most physically and politically complex, most costly, and most likely to change, yet renovating them is often the most disruptive.
Rostenberg’s influence on CO Architects Integrated Interventional Platform at Palomar West Medical Center in creating space in which practitioners could evolve from competitors into collaborators, as well as its modular arrangement of universal procedure rooms, to accommodate non-disruptive incremental change, played a role in the U.S. News and Health Report to feature it as “The Hospital of Tomorrow.”
Previously Vice-President and Principal at SMP/Smith Group, and Senior Principal and Director of Research Anshen+Allen/Stantec, Rostenberg founded and was principal of his own firm, Architecture for Advanced Medicine from 2014 – 2024. He was a Founding Member of the Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Architects (ACHA); Fellow, Health Facilities Institute (FHFI); and the recipient of numerous Local and National AIA Presidential Citations for service to the profession. He has authored books and written numerous articles.
“Bill’s seminal book The Architecture of Medical Imaging published in 2006 was pioneering in its breadth and depth on the planning and design of highly technical healthcare environments and remains to this day one of the few design reference books on this subject matter,” said David Allison, FAIA, FACHA 2025 President, American College of Healthcare Architects. “His ability to cover not only the specific planning and design of these settings, but conceptual ideas behind the planning made it a valued reference for countless students, future healthcare architects and experienced practitioners.
“AIA California is humbled to honor Bill Rostenberg, FAIA Emeritus, with this distinguished recognition,” said AIA California President Ginger Thompson, AIA. “The level of innovation that he reached in the Integrated Interventional Platform at Palomar West Medical Center still makes it influential today. His rigor is visible through all his contributions to the field, dating back to his time as an undergraduate when he formed a company repairing Victorian buildings that grew to have 35 employees and a reputation as pioneers for inner-city restoration. He was just 20.”
“With a commendable, impressive, and tenured commitment to the field of healthcare in architecture, Bill Rostenberg, FAIA Emeritus, embodies the values of this Lifetime Achievement Award,” noted AIA California’s Board of Directors who acts as the jury in bestowing the honor. “He has longstanding support for and contributions to the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health, notable influence through innovation in the planning and design of interventional and surgical facilities, and contribution to thought leadership in the sector through his numerous books and teaching.”
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About the American Institute of Architects (AIA California)
AIA California is dedicated to serving its members and uniting all architecture professionals in the design of a more just, equitable, and resilient future through advocacy, education, and political action. The organization represents the interests of more than 11,000 architects and allied professionals in California. Founded in 1944, the AIA CA is the largest component of the national AIA organization. For more information, visit www.aiacalifornia.org.
