Expert Witness in Medical Offices Design and Construction
Bernstein & Associates, Architects, through its principal William N. Bernstein, AIA, has provided expert witness services in matters involving the design and construction of medical offices and medical office buildings (MOBs) and related properties. Attorneys litigating cases that involve construction defects, base building deficiencies affecting medical tenancies, tenant fit-out disputes including tenant improvement allowance and landlord-work scope issues, ADA path-of-travel and common-area accessibility obligations, exam room and clinical workflow design problems, in-office procedure room design defects, HVAC and ventilation problems including outside air provisions, plumbing capacity and medical waste line issues, accessibility violations, fire safety and egress under the applicable occupancy classifications, water infiltration and building envelope failures, phased-construction and occupied-renovation disputes, and other claims related to the design and construction of medical offices require an expert witness architect who understands both the applicable building codes and standards and the practical realities of how those requirements are applied in the design, construction, and renovation of real medical office space.
About Medical Offices Design and Construction
Medical office design and construction encompasses a range of facility types, including freestanding medical office buildings (MOBs), medical office condominium and tenant spaces, hospital-owned and hospital-affiliated medical office buildings, on-campus and off-campus medical office buildings, multi-tenant medical office buildings housing a mix of primary care, specialty, and ancillary services, and the support spaces that serve them, including exam rooms, in-office procedure rooms, lab draw stations, imaging rooms, waiting and intake areas, business office space, and shared common areas in multi-tenant buildings.
The design and construction of medical offices is governed by a complex framework of technical standards, including the applicable building code (for example, in New York City, the New York City Building Code), the International Building Code, ICC A117.1, NFPA 101 Life Safety Code, ADA requirements (including ADA Title III obligations for places of public accommodation, with particular attention to medical office accessibility), the FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Outpatient Facilities, CDC infection-control guidelines for ambulatory care, state department of health requirements (including, in New York, Article 28 requirements where applicable), state and local energy codes, and applicable medical board regulations.
Disputes commonly arise over base building deficiencies affecting medical tenancies (HVAC capacity, plumbing capacity, structural floor loading for medical equipment, emergency power availability, and base building life safety and accessibility compliance); tenant fit-out and landlord-tenant matters including tenant improvement allowance disputes, landlord-work scope and quality issues, and delivery condition disputes; common-area ADA compliance in multi-tenant medical office buildings; construction defects affecting building envelopes, interior finishes, and clinical spaces; exam room and clinical workflow design problems; HVAC and ventilation deficiencies; non-compliant accessibility features; inadequate fire-rated assemblies and egress; and disputes arising from phased-construction and occupied-renovation projects in operating medical office buildings. Responsibility for compliance with the applicable standards is shared, in different ways, among the operator, the landlord, the design professional, the contractor, subcontractors, specialty vendors, and the party responsible for ongoing maintenance, and litigation in this area frequently turns on the allocation of responsibility for design decisions, construction means and methods, and post-occupancy maintenance.
Expert Witness Services Related to Medical Offices Design and Construction
Expert witness services in medical office design and construction matters typically include a careful review of the project documents (drawings, specifications, submittals, RFIs, change orders, permits, certificates of occupancy, ICRA plans, department of health filings and approvals, lease agreements, commissioning reports, and as-built conditions) (along with lease agreements, work letters, and base building documents), a site survey to measure and document the conditions at issue, comparison of those conditions against the applicable building codes, life safety codes, ambulatory care facility guidelines, accessibility standards, and industry standards of care, review of construction administration records and maintenance histories, and the preparation of clear, well-supported opinions regarding the cause of the defect or failure, the responsibility of the various parties, and the standard of care applicable to the design, construction, and maintenance of medical office buildings.
An effective medical office design and construction expert witness must be able to explain technical requirements — base building MEP capacity and medical tenancy demands, tenant fit-out construction, exam room and clinical workflow design, in-office procedure room requirements, HVAC and ventilation, fire-rated assembly construction, egress geometry, ADA path-of-travel and common-area accessibility, and building envelope detailing — in plain language to judges, juries, arbitrators, and mediators, and must have the credentials, written record, and courtroom-ready communication skills to render credible opinions.
Mr. Bernstein is a Yale-trained, NCARB-certified, LEED-accredited, registered architect. He has expertise in architectural design, engineering design, and construction as the founder/owner of an architectural firm, Bernstein & Associates, Architects, (1990-present) and as the founder/owner of a construction project management firm, Empire Projects, Inc. (2003-Present). He has been the expert witness (as of May 2026) on (40) cases involving design and construction (2006-present) across the United States and Internationally.
Mr. Bernstein’s medical office design experience includes medical office buildings, multi-tenant medical office space, and tenant fit-out projects for primary care, multi-specialty, and specialty medical practices in New York and across the United States. The firm has worked on a wide range of physician group practices and specialty offices over the course of more than three decades. This depth of hands-on architectural design experience — from program development and code analysis through construction administration and commissioning — provides the technical foundation needed to render credible expert opinions on medical office design and construction disputes.
Contact
Please contact Bernstein & Associates, for expert witness services related to the design and construction of medical offices.