LA-based CO Architects' reputation as a go-to firm for healthcare and lab design just got a booster shot:Principal Steve Yundt, whom we snapped a while back at the Pellissier Building in Koreatown, has been named a Fellow in the AIA, joining the less than 2% of all US licensedarchitects. Steve's known for his humanistic approach to healthcare design and its positive impact on the treatment process. He comes by this expertise naturally--as a child, he was hospitalized for several weekswith rheumatic fever, giving him early impressions of what was lacking in the design of healthcare facilities.

The firm's projects include the "hospital of the future": the 360-bed Palomar Medical Center in Escondido. Another boon for the firm is the recruitment of Kevin McCausland asa senior medical programmer and planner, initially working on Kaiser Permante's San Diego Central Hospital Medical Center. The project, targeting LEED Gold, is slated for 2017 completion. CO also promoted Arnold Swanborn to associate principal. The 20-year vet was a senior design architect for the newly opened 264k SFHealth Sciences Education Building atthe Phoenix Biomedical Campus.