Consultancy Merges with Architecture Firm

Nashville-based Hart Freeland Roberts Inc. (HFR), an architectural and engineering firm with a strong emphasis on healthcare design, and Easter & Mason Healthcare Consulting Corp. (EMhc), which provides consulting services to hospitals and healthcare systems nationwide, have announced that the companies have merged. EMhc becomes a separate department in HFR¹s Healthcare Division, with James G. Easter Jr., March, FAAMA, President and CEO of EMhc, becoming a Vice President of HFR and Director of Planning, Healthcare Division. The two firms have worked together on various projects since the mid-Œ90s. Most recently, HFR and EMhc have been jointly providing master-planning services for hospitals in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Texas.

Hart Freeland Roberts Inc., which traces its roots to 1910, is staffed by more than 85 professionals and licensed in 30 states. The firm also maintains offices in Jackson, Tenn., and Kansas City, Mo. HFR offers a wide variety of services, including architectural design, civil and structural engineering, environmental engineering, interior design, project management, healthcare planning, market research, healthcare master planning, feasibility studies, programming, office furniture and equipment procurement and move management. The firm serves the healthcare, education, municipal/civic, commercial/retail, industrial, parks/recreation, religious, corrections, transportation and environmental markets nationwide.

Easter & Mason Healthcare Consulting Corp., founded in 1995 by Easter and R. Eugene Mason, AIA, JD, provided consulting services that addressed the facility and capital asset needs of clients that range from small, rural hospitals to larger tertiary and specialty care clinical programs. Team members have experience in facility master planning, strategic planning, space programming, hospital design and project management. Mason, who served as Vice President, will not be joining the combined operations, but will continue his architectural practice in Prescott, Ariz. Before they formed Emhc, Easter and Mason were partners in an architectural practice in Houston, Texas. Emhc has completed more than 600 major healthcare-related projects and planning studies worldwide. Easter has been involved in healthcare architecture and planning since 1970 when he began graduate studies in architecture and environmental systems at Virginia Tech. He received his Masters in Architecture Degree in 1972. He led the healthcare divisions of two large A/E firms and later served as Director of Facilities Planning for the UT/MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. In 1989 he joined the Facilities Development Division of Quorum Health Resources in Nashville and remained with the company until the founding of Emhc in 1995.