HL20: Michael Graves—Patient Experience From the Patient's Experience

Graves tests out all new medical prototypes. Before he started designing Stryker's new overbed, he took one home.

"My nurse, who is small, 110 lbs., couldn't move it in the room. It was so big and bulky and had drawers, and mirrors and all kinds of cup holders. It had everything but overdrive, and we lightened the load," says Graves.

The new table is sleek and simple. The tabletop itself is oval and extends out from a single arm not unlike an island jutting out from the side of a palm tree.

"We divided the table into two parts—one part for your lunch, and another part for your personal items, your tissues, and so forth and so on. And we redesigned the huge handles so that the cleaning crew will clean those," he says.

While Graves says he seeks out healthcare projects, he still designs products and buildings. As head of his architectural firm, Michael Graves & Associates, and his product design firm, Michael Graves Design Group, he's still churning out blueprints. His latest designs include the Resorts World Sentosa, which includes the Hard Rock Hotel and Convention Centre in Singapore, and most recently, a project that tapped into his personal experience with illness, the Wounded Warrior Home. Built on Virginia's Fort Belvoir Army base, the two prototypes Graves designed meet the needs of soldiers who return from war disabled. For the physically disabled who use a wheelchair, their needs are like his—roomy halls and accommodating kitchens and bathrooms.