The 2026 Vista Award winners

Medical centers and hospitals are essential to their communities. No matter how bad the weather or how enormous the tragedy, communities rely on their health care facilities to be open and providing care. And to do that, they need to be resilient, efficient and operating smoothly, something that often requires complex construction projects guided by careful planning and teamwork.

The Vista Awards, presented each year by the American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) of the American Hospital Association, honor excellence in team-based health care construction, renovation and infrastructure projects. These prestigious honors recognize projects that enhance medical facilities while showcasing extraordinary collaboration and ingenuity in addressing complex challenges. The Vista Awards celebrate teams that work together to establish and maintain safe, high-performing health care environments, foster clear communication and leverage data-driven strategies for success.

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UAB Medical West — New Construction

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Morristown Medical Center — Infrastructure

In 2026, ASHE honors two achievements: the construction of the new Medical West Campus of the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) in Bessemer, Ala., which was awarded the 2026 Vista Award for New Construction; and the reengineering and replacement of the electrical infrastructure, including the addition of an on-site power generation facility, at Atlantic Health System’s Morristown (N.J.) Medical Center, which won the 2026 Vista Award for Infrastructure. A winner was not selected in the Renovation category this year.

The UAB Medical West Campus has transformed how health care is delivered in a fast-growing rural region of Alabama. The complex — which includes a 415,000-square-foot hospital with 200 beds, a 102,000-square-foot medical center and a 275,000-square-foot parking structure — is designed to provide easy access to care for patients, especially those traveling long distances.

A key feature of the complex is the colocation of outpatient services within the hospital footprint, making it easy for patients to navigate among services. Diagnostic imaging, rehab and specialty clinics are arranged in a convenient layout. The designers tapped biophilic strategies to position the hospital on a 42-acre greenfield site with wetlands and a flowing artesian spring, creating a facility that uses nature to enhance the healing environment.

“What really stood out about the UAB project was the team approach,” says Jason A. Piper, executive director of planning, design and construction at AdventHealth Multi-State Division in Merriam, Kan., who chaired the Vista Award Task Force. “They were creating a 200-bed acute and specialty hospital coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they did a great job of dealing with related cost escalation by having quick user group meetings and smart on-the-fly decisions.”

The replacement of the electrical system at Morristown Medical Center was prompted by the days-long power outage caused by Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The facility, a 735-bed regional hospital and Level 1 trauma center, continued to deal with power outages in the years following, exacerbated by faulty and outdated electrical equipment and cabling.

The project transformed that system into one that is not only fully modernized but also can generate its own power far beyond the typical backup emergency generators. The new 4.6-megawatt gas turbine electrical generating system, paired with a 13,000 pound per hour heat recovery steam generator, added a layer of redundancy and extended the life of the existing boiler plant. At the same time, it has generated millions of dollars in energy savings for the hospital.

“The Morristown project was incredibly complex,” notes Mark Patrick Chrisman, Ph.D., PE, health sector executive at Henderson Engineers Inc. in Lenexa, Kan., and a member of the Vista Award Task Force. “They constructed the combined heating/cooling plant and consolidated the complex electrical system while keeping the hospital running. And the new system is not just resilient — they can completely disconnect the plant from the grid, which is incredibly important for the hospital. Now they can stand alone and not have to worry about the utility company supporting them through any patient care that needs to happen during an event.”

Vista Awards task force

The following American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) members served on the task force that selected the 2026 Vista Award honorees:

• Jason A. Piper (chair), executive director of planning, design and construction at AdventHealth Multi-State Division in Merriam, Kan.
• Mark Patrick Chrisman, Ph.D., PE, health sector executive at Henderson Engineers Inc. in Lenexa, Kan.
• Randy Keiser, senior vice president and national health care director at Turner Construction in Nashville, Tenn.
• Ravi Raman, PE, principal at RAM‑TECH Engineers PC in Syracuse, N.Y.
• Damian Richard Skelton, PE, CHFM, SASHE, vice president for FacilitiGroup at HCA Healthcare in Nashville.
• Kurt Spiering, FAIA, ACHA, EDAC, director of strategic innovation for health care at Flad Architecture in Wauwatosa, Wis.

Ed Avis is a freelance writer based in Chicago.