May 24, 2018

Name: Tan Zheng, AIA, EDAC
Current Title: Senior Architect and Director of Medical Planning
Office Location: Shanghai

Years at GS&P: Almost 1

This Faces of GS&P features Tan Zheng, a senior architect and director of medical planning in our Healthcare studio. Keep reading to learn about his first visit to “The Most Magical Place on Earth”, what he’s listening to as he bikes to work and the item he’s scratching off his bucket list.

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in the City of Jining, located in the Shandong Province of China. Fun fact: it’s also the hometown of Confucius!

Where did you go to school?
I earned my undergraduate degree in China before attending Texas A&M University where I earned my master’s degree from their healthcare architecture program.

What was your first job?
My first job was in Beijing, China, working as an intern architect at the Beijing Institute of Residential Building Design & Research.

What drew you to GS&P?
Practicing healthcare architecture in China and improving the built environment for Chinese healthcare has been on my bucket list. GS&P reached out and asked if I wanted to work in our Shanghai office and now I’m working hard to make an impact!

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on while at GS&P and why?
Every project I’ve worked on so far has been great and challenging! The project process in China works a little differently that in the United States. We are asked to enter architectural design competitions, where we must create a complete design for complex projects under an intense schedule. If we win the contest, then we get to actually design the project.

Right now I am enjoying working on a 2,000-bed hospital in Chengdu, China. We have to finish the schematic design in seven weeks and the design documents in eight weeks—it’s going to be busy!

Is there a person who has been influential in your career?
My studio professor at Texas A&M, Professor Kirk Hamilton, has helped guide my career. He played a role in the founding of evidence-based design in healthcare architecture, which is the process of basing decisions about the built environment on credible research to achieve the best possible outcomes. He has been my role model and mentor and I am grateful to have met him when I started my studies in the U.S.

Tan participating in a World War II reenactment in Reading, PA.What’s one thing your coworkers might not know about you?
I am an NRA certified firearm instructor and when I lived in Raleigh, N.C., and Fairfax, Va., I gave free lectures to the Chinese community to educate them on firearm safety.

Where is your favorite place you’ve traveled and why?
My family and I went to Disney’s Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom in March and we absolutely loved it! The “Avatar Flight of Passage” was so much fun to ride that we rode it twice—and would have ridden it a third time if the line hadn’t been so long.

Tan and his family in front of the castle in Disney's Magic Kingdom.What music is playing in your car right now?
I don’t drive a car in Shanghai, but when I ride my bicycle to work I listen to Change by Charlie Put and James Taylor.

Click here to give it a listen!

Three objects on your desk?
My daughter’s photo, her “Love” painting and a stormtrooper statue.