SmithGroup Promotes Seven to Vice President

SmithGroup, one of the nation’s leading architecture, engineering and planning firms, has promoted Heather Chung, Sam D’Amico, Jeff Gerwing, Bonnie Khang-Keating, Lise Newman, Matt Richter and Bob Varga to vice president.                          

Heather Chung, EDAC, LEED AP BD+C, is a senior healthcare planning architect and leads the  firm’s Health Planning Studio in San Francisco. Among SmithGroup’s top experts in healthcare delivery, operations and organization, Chung is well known in the industry. She served as principal programmer for the campus transformation project at Loma Linda University Medical Center and has also been engaged in SmithGroup’s master planning for Los Angeles County’s Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, which will develop a roadmap for campus growth over the next 20-50 years. Chung is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned dual BA degrees in architecture and economics.

Sam D’Amico, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, is lead healthcare designer at SmithGroup’s San Francisco office, where he specializes in developing healing environments that respond to culture and place. A 30-year professional, D’Amico is currently leading the design for the one-million-square-foot Robley Rex VA Medical Center, underway in Louisville, Kentucky. He is also serving as design leader for the new 325,000-square-foot, VA Palo Alto ambulatory care center, targeted for completion in 2017 and the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center campus master plan for Los Angeles County. D’Amico is a graduate of the University of Houston, where he earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree.

Jeff Gerwing, IALD, LC, IESNA, LEED AP BD+C, is director of operations for SmithGroup’s Detroit office, a role he’s held since 2009 during which he has successfully grown revenue, improved project performance and recruited top talent. Prior, Gerwing served as the co-leader of the firm’s Lighting Design Studio, where he was responsible for the lighting design of some of SmithGroup’s most recognized projects, nationwide. This includes Chandler City Hall, Chandler, Arizona and the Cranbook Academy Art Museum renovation and Collections Building, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where his innovative lighting design won international honors for excellence. Gerwing graduated from Penn State University’s Schreyer Honor College with a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering in Lighting Design.

Bonnie Khang-Keating is studio director for the SmithGroup office in Los Angeles. For healthcare client Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, she led the firm’s design of its new Comprehensive Transplant Center, now open adjacent to the main medical Campus. Khang-Keating led SmithGroup’s recent new commission of the $230 million LA County Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Hospital project, as well as a 110,000-square-foot acute care and long-term rehabilitation facility project to be constructed at the Palomar Medical Center campus in Escondido, California. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California School of Architecture with a Bachelor of Architecture degree.

Lise Newman, AIA, leads the Workplace Studio at SmithGroup’s Detroit office. Her 30-year career has been dedicated to the programming, planning and design of workplace facilities and related functions. Newman’s clients in southeastern Michigan include Google, Olympia Development Company, Durr Systems and Federal Mogul as well as the Chamberlain Group in Chicago. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Architecture degree, preceded by undergraduate study in business administration from Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas.

Matt Richter, AIA, is a medical planning architect at SmithGroup’s San Francisco office. He serves as one of the firm’s top national experts in facilities for surgery, emergency service, outpatient care and women’s health services. In addition to working on major healthcare projects in San Francisco such as Sutter Health/California Pacific Medical Center’s new Van Ness and Geary campus, Richter is serving as planning principal for the firm’s Emory University Hospital bed tower expansion project in Atlanta.  He is a frequent presenter at top healthcare industry forums on topics including ambulatory care facility design innovation. Richter earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the University of Arizona.

Bob Varga, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, is a design principal at SmithGroup’s Detroit office, where he works with its Learning, Health, Workplace and Cultural studios. For the Learning Studio, Varga has demonstrated expertise in student life design with successful residence hall renovations for Michigan State University and the University of Michigan, among others. Varga served as lead designer for the renovation of the Patrick McNamara Federal Building and the DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital expansion, both in Detroit. Varga received a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Michigan, preceded by a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Lawrence Technological University.

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