“Hospital,” he said, “conjures up images of a ‘house of sickness.’ But ‘health’ has a more positive connotation.” So while designing hospitals is a critical function of Mann’s role as a Texas A&M University architecture professor, the groundbreaking architecture for health specialization he created when he arrived at Texas A&M in 1966 is largely focused on wellness rather than sickness.
Mann underscores this mindset when working alongside students in his health facilities studio design lab. It also guided him as he helped establish Texas A&M’s Center for Health Systems and Design in 1983—a joint venture between the College of Architecture and the College of Medicine.
To honor the man who’s in his 51st year of teaching this architectural specialization—and to support the center that encourages an interdisciplinary approach toward health facilities design—two prominent Aggie architects, Ronald Skaggs ’65 and Joseph Sprague ’70, recently pledged lead gifts to the Texas A&M Foundation to create a faculty chair in Mann’s honor.
Contingent on the generosity of former students and other friends of Mann and the health systems center, an endowment for the George J. Mann Chair in Healthcare Design is slated to be fully funded by 2021, providing a constant stream of support both for the center and its director.
Mann earned his undergraduate architecture degree from Columbia University in 1961. At the time, the fledgling Peace Corps was in the news, igniting a consciousness among young people of global suffering and a determination to do something about it. Faced with a project decision for his final study and moved by a wave of international awareness, Mann took the unusual measure of writing to 20 health ministries in developing countries, asking if he could design a hospital for them for free. India said “yes.”
Years later, Mann said that his decision to use his architecture skills to make a difference in the world was more of a need than a choice. “I didn’t will it. It just happened,” he said. “It was a fire from within. I knew I had to do something to help people.”
His own background likewise contributed to his yearning to alleviate suffering: His Jewish Austrian family fled the Nazis when he was a baby, and he barely survived his first year in China, where the family sought refuge. “I always felt very lucky to be alive, but I didn’t understand at the time that designing health facilities for those in need was my way of demonstrating my thanks,” he said.
In designing the Indian hospital, Mann managed to impress his Columbia professor, Edward J. Romieniec. In 1966, Romieniec, who served at the time as head of Texas A&M’s Division of Architecture (now Department of Architecture), recruited Mann to create the school’s architecture for health specialization. Half a century later, Aggie architects all over the world credit Mann with igniting a passion within them to use their skills to better the lives of others. Many have gone on to design some of the world’s foremost health facilities, while others have quietly met the needs of more vulnerable clients through thoughtful, functional design.
“We have to be careful that we’re not architects out to impress each other with our designs,” Mann explained, “but are instead doing something that is relevant.”
General (Ret.) Mark A. Welsh III presented his vision for the university’s future and received the Presidential Medallion at an investiture ceremony attended by hundreds.