Mary Chernoff is a Vancouver-based interior designer specializing in healthcare facilities. With over three decades of experience across acute care hospitals and long-term care, she built her own successful practice and later joined forces with Parkin Architects Western, where she leads the firm’s Vancouver Interior Design studio.

Mary is also an artist and award-winning writer. Her first book, INSPIRE, won a National Indie Excellence Award for best gift book. She has one son, a jazz musician.

We talk about:

- Mary’s 35-year career in healthcare design and the full-circle experience of returning to one of her earliest interior design clients, Royal Columbian Hospital.

- We explore how healthcare design has evolved from sterile clinical environments to holistic patient experiences shaped by biophilia, infection control, accessibility, family needs, cultural identity, and inclusive design.

- Mary shares powerful anecdotes from patient and community engagement, including listening to First Nations communities, to evolve how the interior design of hospitals can accommodate patient needs

- We end by talking about building her own healthcare design practice, the benefit of joining major project teams, gradually stepping toward retirement, and why young designers should “observe, participate, and absorb” instead of trying to map out their entire careers.

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Connect with Mary:

⁠CBC Article of Mary's Career

⁠Red Fish Healing Centre for Mental Health and Addiction⁠

⁠Parkin Architects | Meet our Interiors Team⁠

⁠Senior Care and Design⁠

⁠Rhythm Changes Podcast (with Mary's son!)⁠

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