Healthcare planning and design leader Mario Vieira has joined Boston’s Shepley Bulfinch as a principal.

With 25 years as a healthcare architect, Vieira has worked with community hospital clients up and down the East Coast, including a master plan and award-winning patient care tower for Cape Cod Hospital; inpatient and ambulatory projects for Saint Francis Hospital (Hartford, Conn.); and the Southcoast Hospitals Group. He recently led the planning and design of a series of hospitals in Papua New Guinea.

"This is a great match for Shepley. Mario is a trusted architect and advisor for community hospital leaders – something he’s forged with his passion, his personal commitment, and his ability to listen and to guide them through the complex planning, design, and approval process," Shepley Bulfinch President Carole Wedge said.

"There has never been a more important time for healthcare design," said Vieira. "In the world of healthcare, resources are precious and healthcare facilities are getting more and more sophisticated. Master planning and design have a powerful impact not only on managing capital costs, but also on providing an efficient operational model."

Vieira, of Fall River, is a member of the American Institute of Architects, the Boston Society of Architects and the New England Society for Healthcare Strategy, and is a registered architect in Massachusetts.