PODCAST: How HKS Designs Green Commercial Interiors

Dallas-headquartered HKS is a 74-year-old architectural firm that has accomplished major milestones in terms of sustainable and innovative design since designing its first LEED project in 1999. Since then the company has made strides in terms of green building, with 330 LEED-accredited professionals on staff and 132 LEED projects (60 certified and 72 registered) that make up 82 million square feet and represent $20 billion.

Lately, sustainable design has been a large focus for the company as they attempt to achieve a better human experience by creating environmentally conscious architecture that benefits the company’s clients, communities and the planet. In fact, the company has gone as far as hiring a chief sustainability officer (CSO) to help HKS better understand the balance between environmental initiatives and budgetary restraints as the demand for sustainable and energy-efficient design continues to grow. The CSO emphasizes the importance of integrated design process and its ability to reduce operating costs and environmental impact, and helps educate the HKS design staff on effective sustainable design strategies.

The company has won several awards and honors for its sustainable efforts, especially for the way it incorporates creative green elements into the interior design. For example, The HKS-designed C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at The University of Michigan was ranked among the top 100 most innovative and inspiring infrastructure projects in the world by KPMG, after receiving LEED Silver certification for sustainable flooring, lighting and roofing elements.

Soliant Health named four of the architecture firm’s hospitals the “20 Most Beautiful Hospitals in America” in its annual list. Several of the interior design elements create a retreat for healing. At the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, HKS used bold colors to represent the surrounding desert and created a central piece, which is essentially a LED “waterfall” that flows down a concrete wall housed inside the hospital’s atrium.

HKS also designed the lobby at The Horizon at Playa Vista — the birthplace and former home of Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose hangar in Los Angeles — which achieved LEED Gold certification. The interior design still honors Hughes’ technical innovations, with a lobby that tributes modern aviation. The finishes of the lobby have an industrial aspect to the aircraft theme, balanced by warmer touches of bamboo accent walls and backlit glass panels at the reception desks. The furniture also reflects the theme: coffee tables are made from reclaimed airplane propellers, the tables are made from recycled airplane parts and photographs of old planes accent the walls.

Green Building News spoke with Maria Martinico, CID, IIDA, LEED AP, associate principal and senior vice president at HKS, who oversees commercial interiors for the company and manages several interior designers, as well as oversees multiple projects at once. In this podcast, she discussed the company’s green building goals and methods for commercial interior projects.