LAURA POLTRONIERI, AIA
Principal

Laura Poltronieri is one of the country's leading health care architects and planners.  She founded Poltronieri Tang & Associates in 2000 as a means of strengthening her commitment to her clients and to her vision of inclusive, humane, function based pediatric health care planning and design.    

A native of New York City, Ms. Poltronieri developed an early interest in health care planning and design.  As a student at SUNY Buffalo she was awarded a series of competitive internships with Russo + Sonder, a leading health care design firm.  Her commitment to excellence in the design of health care facilities continued with the development of her master's theses on the cross-cultural aspects of birthing environments.  Upon graduation in 1983, Ms Poltronieri was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to develop "Design Guidelines for the Birth Environment."

Early in her career, she expanded her areas of expertise to include design for special populations through a series of design projects for people with disabilities.  She coauthored a study entitled "Play Spaces for Handicapped Children", and completed a series of innovative projects for the J. N. Adams Developmental Center.   

Ms. Poltronieri began working as a health care architect and planner at Ewing Cole Cherry Brott, a Philadelphia architectural firm, in 1986 where she was planner and manager for hundreds of projects with dozens of clients. She was appointed Director of Healthcare Architecture for the firm in 1994. In that capacity she became an early proponent of Evidence Based Design and initiated a firm-wide  post-occupancy evaluation program and resource center as means of improving the quality of the firm's health care design work. She continued to work intensively with select clients, including the Penn State Geisinger Health System with whom she completed the new Women's and Infants Perinatal Center in 1999.  In late 1997 she began working on the new $120 million Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian (CHONY) in New York City and served as Client Principal and lead project planner in conjunction with Davis Brody Bond and Ewing Cole Cherry Brott. The building opened November 2003.  

In 2004 Poltronieri Tang & Associates in association with Davis Brody Bond was awarded the design of the new $40 million pediatric emergency department replacement project at CHONY.  In 2006 Poltronieri Tang & Associates in association with Payette Associates and Array Healthcare Facilities Solutions began programming, planning, and conceptual design for the proposed Penn State Children's Hospital at The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, PA.  In 2007 Poltronieri Tang & Associates in association with Perkins + Will began work at Miami Children's Hospital on programming, planning, and design for the proposed Critical Care Bed Tower building project.  

Articles & Publications

"Riding the Wave-Planning for the Peaks and Valleys of Utilization in the Emergency Department"
National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions
New Orleans, Louisiana
March 2005

“Managing Change: The Staffing Implications of a New Building”
Children’s Hospitals Today
Fall 2003

"Mid-Life Women’s Health is Big Business for All”
Hospital and Healthcare News
October 1999

“Learning From the Children’s Hospital of New York”
Children’s Hospitals Today
Winter 1999

“Creating The Children’s Health Network for the New York City Region”
Children’s Hospitals Today
Fall 1998

“A Framework for Flexibility”
Health Facilities Management
February 1996

“Designing to Minimize Anxiety”
Children’s Hospitals Today
Winter 1996

“Building Flexibility into a Health Care Facility”
Hospital News
August 1995

“Medical Center Uses Architectural Detail to Deliver Child-Focused Care”
Patient-Focused Care, American Health Consultants
June 1995

“Ambulatory Care Offers Solutions to Today’s Health Care Challenges”
Hospital News
May 1995

“Health Systems Will Affect Facility Designs”
Hospital News
April 1995

“Military Faces Health Care Challenges”
The Military Engineer
February 1995

“The Design of the Birth Environment”
National Endowment for the Arts
1985 Design Grant Recipient

Selected Clients

Children’s Hospital of New York Presbyterian
New York, New York

Miami Children's Hospital
Miami, Florida

Penn State Children's Hospital at the Milton Hershey Medical Center
Hershey, Pennsylvania

Geisinger Health System
Danville, Pennsylvania

McGuire Air Force Base
Wrightstown, New Jersey

Deborah Heart and Lung Center
Browns Mill, New Jersey

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Lankenau Hospital
Wynnewood, Pennsylvania

Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital
Malvern, Pennsylvania

University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey

The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Hershey, Pennsylvania

Cooper Hospital University Medical Center
Camden, New Jersey

Kent General Hospital
Dover, Delaware

Brandywine Hospital
Coatesville, Pennsylvania

Carlisle Hospital
Carlisle, Pennsylvania

Easton Hospital
Easton, Pennsylvania

Shore Rehabilitation Hospital
Point Pleasant, New Jersey

Inglis House
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania