Professor of Interior Design Uses Evidence-Based Design in New Award-Winning Waco Family Medicine Facility
One Baylor University faculty member in Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences is celebrating a big win. Debra Harris, PhD, Professor of Interior Design in the Department of Human Sciences and Design, assisted in the planning and execution of evidence-based design for the new Waco Family Medicine facility—which recently won the Center for Health Design’s 2025 Gold Level Touchstone Award.
The Touchstone Awards recognize exemplary use of evidence-based design in the built environment and achievements based on three “touchstones”: collaboration, evaluation, and sharing. Submissions are rigorously judged by accomplished and renowned industry veterans in architecture, healthcare, academia, design, and more.
The goal of Waco Family Medicine’s new facility, which opened in Summer 2024, was to create a holistic center for health—complete with nearly every resource at patients’ fingertips.
The state-of-the-art building includes a demonstration kitchen where patients can learn how to create nutritious and healthy meals. It also houses an indoor and outdoor fitness center, a pharmacy, community park space, an outdoor garden, and private rooms for legal and financial counseling. Harris points to the facility’s lobby as a particularly interesting space, designed with the flexibility to transform into a “festival of kiosks” hosted by a variety of Waco Family Medicine Community Partners providing information on a variety of resources. She also highlights the design priority to implement sources of natural light because it helps with circadian rhythm and sleep quality, showcasing how each aspect of the building was created with holistic well-being in mind.
“The design responds to the desire to provide medical services for the whole person and the whole family with an environment that passively and actively supports the occupants in the building,” Harris said.
Harris has a long history of utilizing evidence-based design, which seeks to provide interdisciplinary data and research to assist in creating spaces that improve quality of life. When the project began back in 2018, she was invited to be an architecture consultant and provided peer-reviewed evidence to validate the design to meet the goals of Waco Family Medicine. Harris was also a member of the architecture firm selection committee, which ultimately chose HKS Architecture. In addition to providing consulting throughout the process, Harris participated heavily in leading the research that allowed HKS Architecture to meet the requirements for the Touchstone Award, which was ultimately presented to a team that includes Harris, HKS Architecture, and Waco Family Medicine.
With the project now completed, Mike Hardin, Jr., MD, President of Waco Family Medicine Institute, shared that he has noticed staff wellness improvements because of the intentionality of staff spaces, including outdoor access for breaks, lactation rooms, and open spaces. In addition, Hardin said the aesthetics of the design tell patients “We respect you,” and allow for easier navigation for both staff and patients alike.
The two primary goals of the design team and Waco Family Medicine were human flourishing and increased patient compliance, when patients receive a prescription or suggestion from staff and then follow through with those instructions, thus being compliant.
“Are we creating an environment where patients can thrive? That is the keystone of human flourishing,” Harris said. “This design supports the patients and the staff by removing barriers to compliance and providing an environment that supports health and wellbeing.”
By providing all resources within the same building, Harris is optimistic that these goals will be met. With comprehensive care provided at Waco Family Medicine, patients no longer need to outsource for services like fitness classes or prescriptions. Instead, they can access them within the same space. Hardin said winning the Touchstone Award was “validating,” and he is “thankful to the entire team who navigated the process and stayed true to our fundamental goals throughout the entire design process.”
A key to the team’s success was the bringing together of various disciplines, including the opportunity for Harris to incorporate her students into the project—introducing them to real-world connections and growing their firsthand knowledge of the design process. Baylor Interior Design students were able to create design concepts and 3D models of their own ideas for the building, some of which were eventually integrated into the final design by HKS Architecture.
“You really can’t design the built environment in a vacuum—it is always interdisciplinary,” Harris noted. “Utilizing other disciplines and their evidence to inform the design opens opportunities for potential innovations that might otherwise not occur. In my work, I routinely build interdisciplinary teams for design and research. This project is a good example of an interdisciplinary team working together to build a place for Waco Family Medicine to meet and exceed their goals for patient service.”
Right now, Harris’ team is working to conduct the post-occupancy evaluation, including survey and objective data provided by Waco Family Medicine that will be used to measure patient and employee responses to the design. Two Baylor research assistants are assisting in collecting the data through surveys. In addition, LesLee K. Funderburk, PhD, RD, CSSD, CSCS, Associate Professor of Nutrition Sciences and Program Director for the Dietetic Internship, is aiding with the research process as well. Harris said the aim is to complete the study by Summer 2025 and prepare manuscripts for peer-review publication to add to the growing body of research on the science of the built environment and human interactions.