After more than four decades of shaping healthcare communities, mentoring future generations, and leaving a lasting imprint on PAYETTE’s Healthcare Studio, Principal Scott Parker retired last month.
We are grateful that Scott spent well over half of his 40-year career at PAYETTE. Since joining the firm in 2000, Scott has been a trusted client resource, managing our project teams with a focus on a building’s systemization and construction, ranging from infrastructure planning, complex building phasing and logistics at all scales.
He has led large, complex design teams for many of the firm’s seminal healthcare projects, including large hospitals at Penn State Health Hershey Medical Center, Boston Children’s Hospital and White Plains Hospital. These award-winning projects provide functional workplaces that allow caregivers to thrive as they help others, environments that uplift young patients and their families as they go through difficult times and indoor spaces that embrace the natural world when needed most.
Most recently, Scott led large design teams for two Massachusetts Veterans Home projects in Chelsea and Holyoke. These projects reflect his commitment to bringing architecture and healthcare at the highest level to our veterans. In many instances the projects are underfunded and the need is great, so each project has a tremendous impact on the daily lives of the patients.
One of Scott’s greatest contributions is something that is often invisible when a project succeeds: the ability to make the complicated feel manageable. He has an exceptional instinct for how buildings come together in the real world—how systems interact, how details get built and how to anticipate challenges before they become problems. That perspective has quietly shaped not just projects, but the way teams approach their work.
Scott has influenced an entire generation of Healthcare Project Managers, encouraging them to explore areas of the practice that are often overlooked, yet critical to strengthening our projects and easing challenges for our clients before they even arise. His incredible knowledge of healthcare design, planning, building codes and being able to communicate them seamlessly and interchangeably is impressive.
It would be stating the obvious to say that Scott is a tremendous resource, with a deep well of knowledge—especially the kind that only becomes invaluable at exactly the right moment—for the Healthcare Studio at PAYETTE. We could talk about how he can make the most impossible door work through his understanding of hardware, or how he navigates complex zoning approvals with confidence and clarity. But focusing only on those things would miss one of Scott’s greatest strengths.
Scott brings a presence to every room that has a way of calming even the most challenging situations. He has consistently shown us the value of a thoughtful, measured response. He also has a knack for inserting just the right story at just the right moment—always relevant, always sharp, and always good for an immediate laugh. Scott’s impact on the next generation of healthcare architects—and on so many others at PAYETTE and beyond—has been immeasurable. As we’ve often joked, “One day when I grow up, I want to be like Scott.”
Scott, thank you for sharing so much with us over the years. You have made a tremendous impact on our healthcare practice and it wouldn’t be the same without you.
Congratulations on your well-deserved retirement!
—PAYETTE
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