Hereford Dooley Architects

What Hereford Dooley Architects does

Hereford Dooley Architects is a privately held, Nashville-based architectural firm founded in 1994 that specializes exclusively in healthcare facility design. The firm operates a single unified Healthcare Studio organized around six interrelated sub-practices: Acute Care Design, Ambulatory Surgery Centers, Freestanding Emergency Departments, Medical Office Buildings, Oncology Centers, and Specialty Healthcare Design. Since inception it has completed over 900 healthcare planning and design projects across 26 states, with standout portfolios of 470+ ASC projects, 150+ FSED projects (since 2011), 240+ acute care projects, 71 medical office buildings, and 13 oncology centers.

The firm delivers professional services across the full project lifecycle — from due diligence and master planning through schematic design, design development, construction documents, and construction administration — targeting hospital systems, health networks, and ambulatory providers. Its go-to-market is direct enterprise field sales into healthcare C-suites, facility managers, and hospital boards, with a heavy concentration of work for HCA Healthcare affiliates including TriStar Health System and Surgery Ventures. The technology stack is standard for the architecture industry — Autodesk Revit for BIM, Enscape for rendering, Bluebeam for document review, Monday.com and TonicDM for project management — with no proprietary platform or AI capabilities. Trip Hereford is the current principal and owner following founder Tom Dooley's May 2022 retirement; the firm maintains a secondary Birmingham, Alabama office and relocated its Nashville headquarters to the Rolling Mill Hill trolley barns in February 2025.

Name

Hereford Dooley Architects

Legal name

Hereford Dooley Architects, Inc.

Website

https://hdarchitects.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1994

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Hereford Dooley Architects is a Nashville-based, healthcare-exclusive architectural firm founded in 1994 that designs acute care hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, freestanding emergency departments, medical office buildings, and oncology centers for hospital systems across 26 U.S. states.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Healthcare Architectural Services

NAICS

Architectural Services (54131)

akta.pro primary industry

Architectural Design Services (BPAHAKAA)

Keywords

• Healthcare architectural design
• Acute care facility design
• Ambulatory surgery center design
• Freestanding emergency department design
• Medical office building design

Headquarters

HQ city

Nashville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Architectural Design Services: Project-based fees for architectural design services including schematic design, design development, construction documents, and construction administration for healthcare facilities. Revenue generated through professional services contracts with healthcare systems and hospital networks.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Hereford Dooley Architects provides full-scope architectural design services exclusively for healthcare facilities. The firm delivers schematic design, design development, construction documents, and construction administration for acute care hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, freestanding emergency departments, medical office buildings, oncology centers, and specialty healthcare projects, working as project-based professional services for hospital systems and healthcare networks.

Product overview

Hereford Dooley Architects operates as a single unified architectural services firm offering specialized healthcare facility design. The core offering is the firm's Healthcare Studio, which encompasses six distinct but interrelated sub-products: Acute Care Design, Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs), Freestanding Emergency Rooms (FSEDs), Medical Office Buildings (MOBs), Oncology Centers, and Specialty Healthcare Design. Each sub-product is a dedicated practice area with its own portfolio page, team specialization, and track record. The sub-products frequently combine within campus or multi-phase projects — for example, an MOB may anchor an ASC or FSED on its ground floor, or a campus project may include acute care, oncology, and MOB components together. The firm has completed approximately 900+ healthcare projects total across nearly half the U.S. states.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Healthcare Studio Architectural Design Services Full-lifecycle architectural design services focused exclusively on healthcare facilities, encompassing master planning, schematic design, design development, construction documents, and construction administration for hospital systems and healthcare networks.
• Acute Care Facility Design Architectural design for acute care hospitals including emergency departments, intensive care units, coronary care, cardiology, neonatal intensive care, and general stabilization areas. The firm has completed over 240 acute care projects across 18 states.
• Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Design Design and planning of outpatient surgery centers, including operating rooms, procedure rooms, pre-op, recovery, and ancillary support spaces. The firm has 470+ ASC planning and design projects in its portfolio.
• Freestanding Emergency Department (FSED) Design Design of freestanding emergency departments physically separated from hospitals but offering lifesaving care 24/7. The firm has been involved with over 150 FSED projects since 2011.
• Medical Office Building (MOB) Design Design of medical office buildings providing office-based outpatient or administrative medical services, ranging from freestanding facilities to buildings attached to hospitals. The firm has planned and designed 71 MOBs across 15 states.
• Oncology Center Design Design of oncology and cancer centers covering early screening, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, including infusion bays, linear accelerators, imaging departments, and bone marrow transplant facilities. The portfolio includes 13 oncology centers.
• Specialty Healthcare Design Design of specialized healthcare spaces including diagnostic/imaging centers, labs, women's care/fertility, physical therapy, pharmacy, exterior reskin, and atrium infill projects.

Quantifiable outcome

• 470+ Ambulatory Surgery Center planning and design projects in portfolio
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• EwingCole: Mid-sized architecture and engineering firm with a nationally recognized healthcare practice serving academic medical centers, health systems, and specialty facilities — directly comparable in healthcare specialization and project scale.
• Array Architects: Specialty healthcare architecture firm focused on acute care, ambulatory, and surgical environments — comparable niche expertise and project mix to Hereford Dooley.
• ESa (Earl Swensson Associates): Nashville-based healthcare architecture firm with a deep hospital and ASC portfolio — the most direct local competitor and the firm that awarded Hereford Dooley a 2023 Gingertown Nashville recognition.
• Gresham Smith: Tennessee-headquartered design and engineering firm with a substantial healthcare practice serving hospitals and outpatient facilities across the Southeast — a direct regional peer for HCA and tri-state health system work.

Broad incumbents

• HDR Architecture: Large integrated architecture/engineering firm with one of the largest U.S. healthcare practices, designing hospitals and medical office buildings for major health systems — broader capability profile but directly competitive on healthcare commissions.
• Perkins&Will: Global architecture firm with a large healthcare studio designing hospitals, ambulatory care, and specialty facilities — competes for enterprise health-system commissions and brings deeper bench and integrated services.
• SmithGroup: National integrated design firm with a dedicated healthcare practice spanning hospitals, outpatient facilities, and academic medical centers — competes for the same health-system master planning and facility design work.
• HKS Architects: Large national architecture firm with a dedicated healthcare practice serving hospitals, medical centers, and outpatient facilities — competes with Hereford Dooley for major health-system commissions while offering broader integrated services.

Emerging players

• Hord Coplan Macht: Mid-Atlantic architecture firm with a growing healthcare portfolio serving hospitals, ASCs, and medical office buildings — a smaller, geographically focused peer pursuing the same outpatient-shift opportunity.
• Cunningham Group: Healthcare-specialized architecture firm focused on ambulatory care, ASCs, and medical office buildings — comparable sub-segment focus and project type to Hereford Dooley.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hereford-dooley-architects
• Xx.com/HD_Architects
• Facebookfacebook.com/HerefordDooleyArchitects

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hereford Dooley Architects