An environmental psychologist and professor of architecture, Dr. Zimring and his multidisciplinary research group of associated faculty and PhD students focus on understanding the relationships between the physical environment of healthcare and other facilities and human satisfaction, performance, and behavior. He has consulted and directed research with the Military Health System, NIH, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Ascension Health, Centers for Disease Control, MCG Health, LSU Health Science Center, Santa Clara County Valley Medical Center, and numerous other organizations.
He currently serves on the board of the Center for Health Design and has served on the boards of the Environmental Design Research Association, the National Academies’ Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment, the Joint Commission’s Roundtable on the Hospital of the Future and other organizations. He has more than 75 publications in the scholarly and professional press and has won 10 awards for his research.
Dr. Zimring served as a senior scientist in developing the 2010 New York City Active Design Guidelines, the first evidence-based active design guidelines, and chaired the Health Environments Research Summit (2006) and the EBD 2.0 Summit (2008). The Emory Hospital Neurocritical Care Unit that the Georgia Tech team helped plan and design won the 2008 Society of Critical Care Medicine Design Citation for the best ICU design.
Educational Background M.S., Ph.D. (Environmental Psychology), University of Massachusetts, Amherst B.S. (Psychology), University of Michigan
Fields
Environmental psychology
Active living
Evidence-based design
Healthcare safety and effectiveness
Patient-centered care
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environmental psychology; active living; evidence-based design; healthcare safety and effectiveness; patient-centered care]]>Recent Courses
Health Center of the Future—A multidisciplinary class taught with Ellen Do, David Cowan and guest instructors such as nurses and physicians.
Theories and concepts of architecture, culture and behavior
Advanced research methods in architecture, culture and behavior
Evidence-based design
Dissertations Supervised
Fehmi Dogan, graduated 2004, Professor Izmir Institute of Technology
Sheila Bosch (joint advisor with Godfried Augenbroe); graduated 2004, Director of Research, Gresham, Smith Architects
Debajyoti Pati, graduated May 2005; now Vice President and Director of Research, HKS Architects
Saleem Dahabreh (co-advisor), graduated spring 2006
Anjali Joseph, defense scheduled March 27, 2006; now Director of Research, Center for Health Design
Gayle Nicoll; defended April 2006, now Chair, School of Architecture, U Texas, San Antonio
Current PhD Students
Hui Cai,
Young-Seon Choi
Sharon Tsepas
Richard Killingsworth
Keith Jundanian;
Michael Herndon
Kemaporn Jayanetra
Altug Kasali (co-advisor)
Constance Nestor
Selen Okcu
Michelle Ossmann
Bo Seo
]]>Research Ambitions Architecture has great potential power: it can provide the critical support for settings where students learn better, workers are more effective and participants and communities are healthier. Evidence based design has particular influence on the design of healthcare facilities; there is growing scientific evidence that improved design can impact patient experience, safety and outcomes. Our ambitions are to be the pre-eminent university training practitioners, scholars and researchers in evidence-based design, to contribute to the evidence base and to play a crucial role in translate this work into application.
Research Groups/Labs Healthy Environments Research Group
Selected Recent Research Projects
“Walking on campus: Correlates and web tools.” $339,000. 9/16/05-11/30/07 DHHS/PHS/ National Institutes of Health. This project explores the role of design in encouraging physical activity on business campuses and created: 1) a valid online self-report tool for reporting walking and demographics; 2) refined metrics for assessing the layout and design of campuses; 3) conducted case studies of three innovative campuses including Sprint. This project was one of 14 funded out of 99 submitted.
“Healthcare Environments Summit 2006.” $67,250 7/15/2006-3/14/2006. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Steelcase. This project created a Summit meeting of 65 prominent healthcare thought leaders. The Summit participants identified key research topics and high priority actions for creating an effective field of healthcare design research.
“MCG Critical Care 3 West Evaluation” $36,265. 3/1/2006-11/15/06 MCG Health. This project evaluated an innovative new patient and family centered neuro Intensive Care Unit at MCG Health in Augusta, GA.
“Building High Performance Healthcare: Physical environments transforming safety and quality.” (with Godfried Augenbroe, Ellen Do, Shieila Bosch, Jennifer DuBose) $749,896. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 1/1/07-5/14/08. This project creates a series of papers and tools for senior healthcare executives.
“Supporting the Redevelopment of Healthcare in the Wake of Katrina” (with Godfried Augenbroe, Sonit Bafna, Ruchi Chaudhury), $177,098. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. April 15-December 15, 2006. This project supports LSU Healthcare in redeveloping Charity and University Hospitals and clinics in New Orleans.
“Supporting LSU In Creating An Excellent Evidence-Based Hospital” (with Godfried Augenbroe, Sonit Bafna, Jennifer DuBose, Ruchi Chaudhury) $218,935.00 . Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Jan 1, 2008-May 31, 2009. This project continues support for LSU Healthcare in redeveloping Charity and University Hospitals and clinics in New Orleans.
“Creating World Class Healthcare Facilities for America’s Military”, $1,007,915, Military Health System, February 21, 2009-Sept 30, 2010. This project creates a post-occupancy evaluation system, innovation center, design checklist, community portal and refereed publications to support the Military Health System’s $11 Billion hospital modernization program. It will create policy and practices that will impact the system’s 59 hospitals, 800 medical and dental clinics and 10.4 million people served.
“Atlantic Station Employee Health Study”, co-PI, $169,730, Emory University, January 1, 2008-Sept 30, 2009. This project explores the walking behavior of workers who take jobs in Atlantic Station, an intown community justified in part by its support of active living.
“Support and evaluation of the New York City Active Design Guidelines”, co-PI, $48,900. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Jan 2009-June 2010 These guidelines, aimed at promoting everyday physical activity , are the first of their type.
“Creating a comprehensive database and web site of federal courts” (with Thanos Economou, Michael Gamble) $1,115,000, 8/02-5/05 US General Services Administration and the Administrative Office of the US Courts. These tools will allow users to virtually navigate through recent federal courts projects, seeing courtrooms and public spaces, view plans and descriptions, read and hear user comments and access post-occupancy evaluation lessons-learned.
“Creating the GSA Innovative Office and Website and Database.” US General Services Administration, $375,364 Creates an innovative website of federal offices aimed at improved organizational effectiveness. 9/02-12/05
“Active Living by Design: Creating Activity-Enhancing Residential Settings for Seniors” (with Ruth Dalton); $189,000. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This project, conducted jointly with AAHSA, the major professional organization for non-profit continuing-care communities, conducted a survey of 400 retirement communities to record the presence and use of activity friendly design features and layouts. 2/03-12/05
“Increasing physical activity through innovative stair design: Evaluating skip-stop elevators combined with spacious stairs” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. $125,000. Evaluates the health impact of innovative skip-stop elevators in a California office building designed by Thom Mayne and Morphosis. 10/04-10/06
Dissertation Grants
"Environmental Predictors of Voluntary Stair Use" Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $25,000. Stair use can be a valuable everyday physical activity. A dissertation grant for Gayle Nicoll, this project explored what building characteristics predict everyday stair use. 1/04-5/06.
“Studying the Influence of Building and Site Layout on Walking Behavior among Older Adults in Continuing Care Retirement Communities.” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $25,000. A dissertation grant for Anjali Joseph, this project explored what characteristics of paths and sites predict walking. 8/04-5/06.
Books
Joseph, A., Becker, F., Hamilton., Shepley, M. & Zimring, C. (2008) A practitioner's guide to evidence-based design. Center for Health Design: Concord, CA.
Book chapters/sections
Zimring, C., Dogan, F, Fuller, C, Dunne, D & Kampschroer (2005) The facilities performance evaluation working group. W. Preiser & J Vischer (eds.) Building Performance Evaluation, New York: Wiley.
Zimring, C. (2009) Forward. Evidence-based Healthcare Design. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Refereed Archival Journal Special Issues Edited
Environment & Behavior, March 2008, Volume 40, No. 2
Health Environments Research & Design (HERD) Journal, Spring 2008 VOL. 1, NO. 3
Refereed Journal Articles 2005-2009
Rashid M, Wineman J, Zimring C, 2009, "Space, behavior, and environmental perception in open-plan offices: a prospective study" Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 36(3) 432 – 449
Nicoll, G. & Zimring, C. (2009). "Effect of Innovative Building Design on Physical Activity." Journal of Public Health Policy, 30(S1), S111-S123.
Zimring, C,M. & Bosch, S. (2008) "Building the Evidence Base for Evidence-Based Design: Editors' Introduction." Environment and Behavior, 40(2): 147-150.
Rashid, M. & Zimring, C.M. (2008) "A Review of the Empirical Literature on the Relationships Between Indoor Environment and Stress in Health Care and Office Settings," Environment & Behavior, Vol. 40, No. 2, 151-190.
Ulrich, R. S., Zimring, C. M., Zhu, X., DuBose, J., Seo, H., Choi, Y., et al. (2008). "A review of the research literature on evidence-based healthcare design." Health Environments Research & Design, 1(3), 61-125.
Cowan, D., Ellen Yi-Luen Do, E., Margolis, M., Zimring, C.M., & Ackerman, J., "The ED of the Future: an Interdisciplinary Graduate Course in Healthcare Design," Academic Emergency Medicine, 16(1), S277 - S277.
Okcu S., Zimring C., Ryherd E. (2008) "Aural connectivity as a product of correlation between architectural enclosure features and acoustical qualities." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2008;123(5):3669.
Okcu S., Zimring C., Ryherd E. (2008) " Descriptors of Aural Connectivity: Architectrual enclosures and acoustical qualities." J. Acoust. Soc.2008; 124(4):2463.
Okcu S., Zimring C., Ryherd E. (2008) "Toward a less chaotic sound environment for nurses: A study investigating the relationship between layout design, aural connectivity and user activities." J. Acoust. Soc.2007; 122(5):3012.
Sadler, B. L., DuBose, J., & Zimring, C. M. (2008). "The business case for building better hospitals through evidence-based design." Health Environments Research & Design, 1(3).
Ulrich, R. S., Zimring, C. M., Zhu, X., DuBose, J., Seo, H., Choi, Y., et al. (2008). "A review of the research literature on evidence-based healthcare design." Health Environments Research & Design, 1(3), 61-125.
Zimring, C., & Bosch, S. (2008). "Building the Evidence Base for Evidence-Based Design." Environment & Behavior, 40(2), 147-150.
Zimring, C., Bosch, S., (2008). "Building the evidence base for evidence-based design: Editors' introduction." Environment & Behavior, Mar; vol. 40: pp. 147-150.
Rashid, M., Zimring, C., (2008). "A review of the empirical literature on the relationships between indoor environment and stress in health care and office settings: Problems and prospects of sharing evidence." Environment & Behavior, Mar 2008; vol. 40: pp. 151-190.
Henriksen, K., Isaacson, S., Sadler, B. L., & Zimring, C. M. (2007). "The role of the physical environment in crossing the quality chasm." The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 33(11 Supplement), 68-80.
Joseph, A. & Zimring, C. (2007). "Where active older adults walk." Environment & Behavior, 39(2), 75-105
Joseph, A.; Zimring, C., Harris-Kojetin, L. & Kiefer, K (2006). "Presence and visibility of outdoor and indoor physical activity features and participation in physical activity among older adults in retirement communities." Journal of Housing for the Elderly, 19 (3/4).
Harris-Kojetin, L., Kiefer, K., Joseph, A., & Zimring, C. (2005). "Encouraging physical activity among retirement community residents - The role of campus commitment, programming, staffing, promotion, financing and accreditation." Seniors Housing & Care Journal 13 (1). Awarded the 2005 best research paper award.
Zimring, C.M., Joseph, A., Nichol, G. & Tsepas, S. (2005). "Building design and site attribute predictors of physical activity: Research and implementation opportunities." American Journal of Preventive Medicine.