After being held at the Vanderbilt School of Engineering for 19 years, the 20th Healthcare Design and Construction Symposium will take place July 29-30 at the university’s newly opened campus in New York City.
The annual event hosted by the School of Engineering’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering brings together leaders in healthcare administration, construction, and design to discuss the most pressing challenges facing healthcare design and construction.
“In many ways, after Nashville, New York City serves as an epicenter of large and influential healthcare systems in the United States,” said Sanjiv Gokhale, the main organizer of the symposium and Engineering Endowed Director of Construction Management at Vanderbilt.
“By hosting the symposium in Manhattan, we hope to tap into this vibrant ecosystem and generate new ideas and energy from the local healthcare community—architects, engineers, healthcare providers, and builders alike.”
The agenda for the upcoming symposium is still in the works, but past topics have included the intersection of built environments and healthcare delivery, sustainability, technology like artificial intelligence, and patient experience.
This year’s symposium is being held slightly earlier than the traditional schedule, organizers said, to accommodate ongoing construction activities at the new campus prior to the start of the fall 2026 academic term. The campus is expected to welcome about 100 undergraduate students each semester.
Already, the New York campus has been woven into the fabric of the city. In spring 2024, Vanderbilt launched the Vanderbilt in the City lecture series and established the campus as a center of dialogue. The lectures consistently welcome standing-room-only audiences.
The symposium is supported by approximately 25 platinum-level sponsors with The Cumming Group as the overall program sponsor.
“Their continued support is especially meaningful given the higher costs associated with hosting a high-quality, day-and-a-half program in New York City,” Gokhale said.