Elizabeth Rack

Elizabeth was 14 years old when she toured Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois, and “from that moment on,” she recalls, “I realized how the built environment has a visceral emotional impact.” For Elizabeth, who joins SmithGroup with a tenure of decades of healthcare planning and design experience, it still does. She went on to become an architect specializing in health facilities and has developed a personalized approach in which she thinks of her projects as living entities. “You focus on every aspect and detail of a building for years, and once it's built, you place it in the hands of your client," she says. "That is when the building begins its life." Elizabeth especially enjoys complex academic medical centers that look to both redefine how care is delivered and enhance the patient, family, and caregiver experience. “Two things are a great source of inspiration to me: original ideas and acts of kindness,” Elizabeth reveals. “Being an architect has taught me the importance of collaboration, being open-minded and developing perspective. I hope I carry that attitude to other aspects of my life.”