HKS Architects, Inc., a national architectural firm with 28 U.S. and international offices, has formed the HKS Science & Technology practice.
Specializing in the planning and design of highly technical building types, HKS’s Science & Technology practice offers the broadest range of services available to the academic and biomedical research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device community, including laboratory programming, planning and design, strategic science planning and laboratory equipment planning.
“We know that the continuum of new science and emerging technologies is evolving with ever-increasing momentum,” said Ralph Hawkins, president and CEO of HKS, Inc. “Offering science and technology services to our clients is part of HKS’s strategy to provide the most comprehensive services to meet their constantly changing and evolving needs.”
H. Michael Smith, AIA, LEED AP, senior vice president, is HKS’s National Science & Technology Practice Leader. With more than 27 years of experience in a wide range of renovation, adaptive reuse and new construction projects, Smith has focused his entire career on the design of science and technology building types. Working for clients in the corporate, institutional, academic and government market sectors, he has directed, managed, programmed and designed many notable projects, including academic and biomedical teaching and research laboratories, biotechnology and pharmaceutical research and production facilities, cleanrooms for microelectronics and medical device manufacture, and animal research facilities, among others.
For the past decade, Smith has held principal-level, science-practice leadership positions at some of the nation’s largest architectural firms and has been responsible for the development of such notable science buildings as the Wallis Annenberg Research Center at the House Research Institute in Los Angeles, Calif.; the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Cancer Immunotherapeutics and Tumor Immunology Building at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif.; the Donald P. Shiley Center for Science & Technology at the University of San Diego in San Diego, Calif.; and the Dana & David Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Calif.
Demonstrating the HKS Science & Technology practice’s commitment to achieving excellence in science and technology facilities design, the firm acquired world-renowned laboratory planning firm Earl Walls Associates, which will be rebranded as Earl Walls Consultancy, a division of HKS. With more than 2,500 laboratories to its credit, totaling over 200 million gross square feet, Earl Walls Associates grew from the 1962 collaboration among Dr. Jonas Salk, architect Louis I. Kahn and founder Earl Walls. Together they designed the Salk Institute, which established new milestones for laboratory facilities design. For the past five decades, Earl Walls Associates was integral to the development and innovation of many of the world’s modern laboratory planning concepts, including 22 awarded projects in R&D Magazine’s “Laboratory of the Year” competition.
Ken DeBoer and Ned Michalowski lead the Earl Walls Consultancy, based in San Diego, Calif. DeBoer, with 37 years of experience, is a programmer and planner with a complete understanding of the technical issues involved in highly complex laboratories and their support systems. His portfolio includes facilities for numerous government and academic institutions, ranging from sophisticated national core facilities to instructional laboratories for community colleges. More than 25 years ago, DeBoer began his laboratory planning career working with Earl Walls.
Michalowski has gained varied experience in the programming and design of laboratory facilities for the federal government, academia, private sector and institutional research. He joined Earl Walls in 1985 and has extensive experience providing strategic science planning, programming and design for numerous projects of various sizes, types and complexity. His projects have won awards including R&D Magazine's 1995 “Laboratory of the Year” for Ciba-Geigy's Life Sciences Building.
“DNA genetic coding didn’t exist 20 years ago,” said DeBoer. “Today, scientists are reinventing science as new methods and technologies become available. In turn, we must design facilities to accommodate both existing and future technologies. We speak the language of scientists, offering a distinct blend of technical knowledge and design creativity.”
Examples of innovative science and technology projects include:
- University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center Clinical Research Building, Houston, Texas
- University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Biomedical Research Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Clements Advanced Medical Imaging Center, Dallas, Texas
- Brooke Army Medical Center, Institute of Surgical Research, Fort Sam Houston, Texas
- Utah State University, Widtsoe Hall Chemistry Building, Logan, Utah
- Instituto de Diagnóstico y Referencia Epidemiológicos (InDRE), Infectious Disease Laboratories, Mexico City, Mexico
- The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California
- National Institutes of Health, Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center, Bethesda, Maryland
- Ciba Geigy Pharmaceuticals, Life Sciences Building, Summit, New Jersey
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Advanced Measurement Laboratory, Gaithersburg, Maryland
- Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, La Jolla, California
- University of Alabama, Shelby Hall Interdisciplinary Science Building, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
- Pacific Northwest Laboratories, Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Richland, Washington
- University of Wisconsin, Microbial Sciences Building, Madison, Wisconsin
“Science and technology facilities should inspire creativity and innovation, foster collaboration among colleagues and peers, attract and retain the best and brightest talent, and effectively represent an institution’s desired image to the public,” said Smith. “I am passionate about our work and committed to delivering facilities for science that meet the highest expectations of our clients, while respecting their time and budget constraints.” BD+C
Related Stories
| Jan 19, 2015
HAO unveils designs for a 3D movie museum in China
New York-based HAO has released designs for the proposed Bolong 3D Movie Museum & Mediatek in Tianjin.
| Jan 19, 2015
Gaudi’s first work outside Spain will be a chapel in Chile
Nearly 100 years after Antoni Gaudí’s death, Chile will begin constructing a chapel using his designs.
| Jan 19, 2015
Architecture for Humanity closes office, plans to file for bankruptcy
After more than 15 years of work, the nonprofit design group Architecture for Humanity has closed its San Francisco office and plans to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.
| Jan 19, 2015
Four Seasons tower will be Boston's tallest
On Jan. 14, 2015, developer Carpenter & Company and executives from the Four Seasons broke ground on the Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences, which will become the tallest building in Boston at 699 feet.
| Jan 19, 2015
Mystery buyer pays highest ever price for NYC residence
The 89th and 90th floors of 157 W. 57th Street have just been purchased for more than $100 million.
| Jan 17, 2015
When is a train station not a train station? When it’s a performance venue
You can catch a train at Minneapolis’s new Target Field Station. You can also share in an experience. That’s what ‘Open Transit’ is all about.
| Jan 16, 2015
Artsy lifeguard stations will brighten Toronto’s snowy beach
Five winning designs have been unveiled for lifeguard stands that will double as public space art installations on Toronto's beach.
| Jan 16, 2015
New York City construction costs continue to climb
A study released by the New York Building Congress shows that construction costs in Manhattan have risen 5% in each of the last two years.
| Jan 15, 2015
A reconstructed Taliesin West is the largest Frank Lloyd Wright LEGO Model [slideshow]
Artist Adam Reed Tucker used 180,000 LEGO pieces and 420 hours of work to recreate Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West campus.
| Jan 15, 2015
Construction materials prices fall in November
Construction input prices dipped 1.4% during the final month of 2014 and are down nearly 1% on a year-over-year basis, according to the Jan. 15 producer price index release from the U.S. Department of Labor.
