Edra44 Providence

January 14, 2026

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Edra44 Providence

EDRA44Providence took place May 29 - June 1, 2013 at the Omni Providence Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island. Photo highlights are below, but for detailed coverage of this event, check out our Facebook page and Twitter feed! You can also view a variety of presentations, including our keynote presentation and awards banquet on the EDRA44 Slideshare uploads.

Keynote speaker Richard Jackson with HUD Administrator Barbara Fields and Fred Kent, President of Project for Public Spaces; Rhode Island Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Jeremy Wells, Lefteris Pavlides, Marcella Thompson, Aaron Wernham and Terrie Fox Wetle

Healthy + Healing Places Exhibition; EDRA Career Award recipient Rich Wener with Kris Day

Attendees enjoying the Great Places Awards reception; Sue Weidemann and Gary Gumpert present the Michael Brill Award to Sheila Gobes-Ryan

An interactive poster session; the EDRA44 Book Display

Roger Williams University President Donald J. Farish with Lefteris Pavlides; EDRA Board Treasurer Shauna Mallory-Hill with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

Program Schedule The final EDRA44Providence schedule of presentations is available for download. Click here to view a searchable PDF file of all accepted oral and poster presentations and the CEU credits associated with each session.

Sponsorship and Exhibit Opportunities Thank you to our EDRA44Providence sponsors and exhibitors:

Routledge
Community Development Graduate Program, University of Detroit Mercy
Breathing Time Yoga
Rapid Modeling Corporation
Sodexo Education
Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce

Conference Theme: Healthy + Healing Places

The architecture of settlements, landscapes, buildings, and interiors is sensual, influencing our physical, social and emotional health—be it for good or ill.

At their best, environments inspire, empower, and encourage. They stimulate kinesthesia, engender sociability and enable access to fresh foods, all of which support population health and prevent disease.

At their worst, environments depress, restrict, isolate, subjugate, demoralize, create stress, and discriminate, increasing inhabitants’ allostatic load (an elevated levels of disease-causing hormones due to environmental stress or what traditional practitioners called bad Feng Shui). They also increase contagion and contaminate the body with toxins as we breathe, drink and eat—all of which undermine health, on individual and societal levels.

Healing requires above all to do no harm and buildings can go a long way to prevent iatrogenic disease by averting the spread of infections or accidents. While we typically think of a “caregiver” in terms of a healthcare provider, it is also the architect's responsibility to provide “care” and help restore health and promote recuperation. Environments can support caregivers’ activities at every step of the process, greatly expanding their power to heal. The physical environment can comfort patients, strengthen their physical and emotional condition, provide hope, and alleviate fear.

EDRA44 has a special focus on health policy implications for environmental design in addition to promoting the value of research for advancing environmental design and theory building. The 2013 conference is co-sponsored by the Rhode Island Department of Health and together we invite EDRA44 participants to contribute to developing health policy through environmental design research. As a state where the most remote location is no more than 50 minutes from the capital, Rhode Island is an ideal place to test new policies and measure their outcomes. We hope to report back to EDRA in years to come that EDRA44 was the spearhead of new national and global initiatives.

The Governor, the Mayor of Providence, and the planners of the 39 Rhode Island towns and cities invite EDRA44 participants to address lofty goals and enjoy Ocean State spectacles.

EDRA44Providence Conference Committee
Lefteris Pavlides, Co-Chair
Jeremy Wells, Co-Chair
Peter R. Simon, Rhode Island Department of Health
Saif Haq
Debajyoti Pati
Anne Tate
Marcella R. Thompson
Richard Wener
Kate O'Donnell, Executive Director