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Community Transformation in the Northeast U.S. and Mid-Atlantic Region Drives Creative Responses from Designers
Community Transformation in the Northeast U.S. and Mid-Atlantic Region Drives Creative Responses from Designers
Metro areas throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region of the United States are transforming. They might not be experiencing explosive population growth like those in the Southeast or Southwest, but a new era for innovation, development and design in New York, Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Virginia, is dawning.
Why? In part, because they’re among the most populous and oldest developed places in the country, and in part because people are living and working differently than before.
“There is a convergence of forces requiring cities to adapt to the changing needs of the people they serve,” said HKS Regional Director Shannon Kraus. “Aged infrastructure, population growth, hybrid work and artificial intelligence are all driving a fundamental shift in how people live and work in a post-pandemic society.”
These factors — in addition to pendulating economic conditions — are causing challenges and presenting opportunities for city governments, real estate developers and building owners. HKS is working with these entities to contribute creative solutions for existing and future buildings, so people who live in, work in, and visit the region can thrive.
Unlocking the Potential of Older Infrastructure
While the historic buildings in well-established Northeast and Mid-Atlantic cities are central to their charm, many aren’t adequately serving people who need safe, comfortable places to live, learn and receive health care services.
“Most of these cities have old hospitals, schools, and housing stock that they need to reinvest in, or they have to build new, better buildings that support people in a changing post-COVID world,” Kraus said.
Designers from HKS’ Cities & Communities practice, Kraus noted, are working across sectors to revitalize communities and infrastructure with the deep understanding that where people live dramatically impacts their health and well-being.
Individual building repositioning and renovation projects, while a necessity in older cities, can be expensive and labor intensive. Kraus and HKS New York office director Eric Thomas both said that architects and developers are currently engaged with officials in conversations to advocate for better tax incentives that spur development.
They are also having parallel discussions about sustainability, acknowledging that reducing embodied carbon and carbon emissions through design interventions will help unlock the potential of existing buildings.
“There’s a big push for more electric, more sustainable buildings, but our grid is struggling, and it relies a lot on fossil fuels,” Thomas said about New York. “There needs to be a bigger investment in alternative fuel sources, so that as we design and retrofit existing buildings, our electrical grid can handle it.”
As larger repositioning efforts unfurl industry-wide, HKS architects and designers are working to adapt existing buildings for new uses, improve energy efficiency and make enhancements to exceed current building code standards — all tactics that better serve building users and help clients recoup costs of the property investments they’ve already made.
“We’re making sure they’re looking at the big picture. We can have a big impact on the cost related to building systems upgrades, and we partner with engineers who share that philosophy,” Thomas said. “Our clients appreciate that holistic approach.”
Supporting New Modes of Working and Living
In Northeast and Mid-Atlantic business and government centers, the amount of vacant office space has skyrocketed since the pandemic began in 2020. As a result, commercial owners, lessees and developers are seeking to reimagine office environments and office-anchored developments. Designers from HKS Interiors and Mixed-Use practices are helping companies navigate the shift by bringing insights and ideas to office design that aid collaboration in addition to attracting tenants and talent.
“Our teams are helping commercial clients pivot during this challenging time, providing solutions that help them diversify their amenities and offerings,” said Shantee Blain, HKS Washington, D.C.’s office director. Blain added that the commercial downturn has enabled HKS teams to leverage their multidisciplinary experience to bring new ideas to different building types and sectors.
The commercial office downturn is coinciding with an urgent need for more multifamily housing in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region — a need that stems from a variety of factors including the large, densely located populations and residents’ changing needs in the era of hybrid work.
“As the demand for office has cooled, the demand for residential and multifamily has increased. More people want to work from home and are looking for different things,” Kraus said.
New residential construction is taking place in the Washington, D.C. and New York metro areas, where government-led initiatives to generate tens of thousands of housing units in recent and upcoming years are in full swing. The region is also a prime location for new mixed-use destinations and transit-oriented developments with dining, public space, local retail, entertainment and varied housing options.
Such mixed-use multifamily properties and larger developments are integral to the future of design and development, according to HKS leaders.
“In the industry, I hope we’re going toward doing more of what I call ‘hybrid buildings,’ where a place we design doesn’t have just one typology and ‘mixed-use’ is how you describe all buildings,” Blain said. “These types of places invigorate communities and give back to their residents.”
New Technologies Demand New Spaces
The pandemic changed what people need from the places where they live and work. And there is yet another force drastically impacting work modes and development in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic: cloud-based technology.
With advances in cloud computing and remote networks making it easier for people to work remotely or in hybrid settings, the demand for highly equipped offices — at home and in corporate spaces — is surging. Cloud computing and widescale adoption of artificial intelligence are also leading to astronomical increases in the need for high-performing data centers worldwide.
HKS leaders said that with the recent Mission Critical practice expansion, the firm is further establishing itself at the vanguard of data center design. HKS is creating new campuses to handle large server and computing loads in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and beyond. Introducing new talent and skills into the firm’s global base is helping design teams provide more services and develop inventive solutions for these vital facilities.
“We are developing new ways of designing data centers in the region, uniting the skills of talented mission critical designers with professionals that have experience designing a broader range of building types,” Blain said.
HKS designers work swiftly and smartly to design and deliver data centers and operations facilities, in order to set trends in sustainability, building performance and innovation.
“It doesn’t have to be data centers for miles,” said Mike Drye, HKS Richmond’s office director. “We’re in this next generation of thinking, and we don’t just have to repeat what’s been done. We can think creatively about it.”
Synergistic Relationships and Growth
Regional HKS leaders said their teams are coupling that kind of creative energy with local experience in health, government, sports and commercial design to build connections and meet the needs of communities throughout the region as they evolve.
“When I think about the types of work our firm and office does in academic health and collegiate sports and the opportunities around our region, I see tremendous potential for us to leverage all that HKS does more broadly,” Drye said.
The area’s abundance of academic health, research, and education institutions — many of which are connected to major universities — are consolidating and growing. These institutions need state-of-the-art facilities for medical services, teaching and learning, housing, research and athletics. The natural connections and design overlaps among these building types mean that HKS designers can provide top-tier services based on deep knowledge of a variety of practice areas. They can translate their experience to new and innovative designs.
“The conversation we like to have with clients starts with the question: how else can we serve you?” Thomas said. “We have subject matter experts and talented folks who can assist with student housing, classroom buildings, sports facilities and laboratories, including teaching and research space.”
In addition to growing its Education and Life Science practices, HKS is also expanding other practices in the region including Hospitality, Culture and Senior Living. Projects stemming from these practices will attract new people and provide more vital community resources.
Innovating Globally, Designing Locally
As Northeast and Mid-Atlantic cities simultaneously grapple with their history and future, HKS leaders said that their teams will draw on the firm’s global talent base and local relationships to design spaces and places that uniquely suit their surroundings.
Thomas said that in New York, multidisciplinary design teams are leading community resilience efforts and partnering with institutions to enrich the city’s cultural offerings. Blain said she and other D.C. staff members are inspired by the District’s historic buildings and human scale, which helps them create welcoming destinations. And in Richmond, Drye said colleagues are building relationships with organizations to tap into the local artistic and entrepreneurial spirit so they can help the growing city develop authentically.
These HKS teams are transforming homes, offices, learning and healing environments, and places for connection so they can weather current and future economic, environmental and technological conditions. Working nimbly and collaboratively, designers will contribute to a resilient future for people throughout the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
“We lean into our design expertise and bring forward innovative ideas, and a lot of cities in our market require that,” Kraus said. “The collision of old and new here is exciting, and we’re leading change in the built environment that supports our communities’ long-term well-being and growth.”
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HKS Expands Mission Critical Team to Lead Market Transformation
HKS Expands Mission Critical Team to Lead Market Transformation
Global design firm HKS is expanding its Mission Critical practice to strengthen its position as a leader in designing resilient, critical facilities that operate 24/7, 365 days a year – an escalating market that has grown to include every economic sector. The firm hired industry veteran Mark Nakatani to head the practice and successfully acquired Reston, Virginia-based AXO Architects, specialists in technically complex buildings.
Nakatani will serve as HKS’ Global Practice Director, Mission Critical. He brings more than 30 years of experience in developing technology-centric design practices and delivery teams to the role.
Kirk Teske, HKS Partner and Global Sector Director, Place, oversees the firm’s Mission Critical practice. With Nakatani joining HKS, Teske envisions opportunities to build on and diversify the firm’s market share.
“HKS is very experienced in the design of mission critical programs. We also have a portfolio of advanced manufacturing facilities, life sciences and operations centers,” Teske said. “We believe Mark can grow our market share in these building types and partner with HKS practice leaders to meet the demand in technology-based solutions across all our markets.”
Nakatani said that as a multidisciplinary firm, HKS can bring added value to clients in a wide array of markets that have surging technology needs.
“Hospitality, sports, health care – all of these markets are going through a transformation, whether it’s electrification, AI or data management,” said Nakatani.
“These are the crossroads where I think HKS can be the center point. I’m excited about what that could mean.”
AXO served clients for decades in “data center alley,” a region of Virginia that has the highest concentration of data centers in the world – more than 25 million square feet, with more planned or in development.
Arizton market research states that the U.S. data center market is projected to expand to $149 billion by 2029, up from $102 billion in 2023, a compound annual growth rate of 6.5%. The global data center and cloud service market, which was valued at $200 billion in 2021, is expected to zoom to $450 billion by 2027, according to estimates by market research and consulting firm Ken Research.
“We are in a technological era in which one of the primary resources is data – the capture, processing, and transmission of which takes place primarily in the data center,” said David Sassano, AXO’s former owner, who now serves as Regional Practice leader, Mission Critical, at HKS. “This building type plays a vital role in how we function as a global society.”
As data management needs increase, energy efficiency becomes more paramount and devices get smaller and require less of a building footprint, data center design is “at the cusp of some really phenomenal innovation over the next few years,” Sassano said.
HKS is well-equipped to lead this market transformation and help clients achieve environmental, financial and operational resilience.
“In addition to our ability to lead and deliver projects, HKS has some of the best talent in the industry for design innovation,” Teske said.
“With the trend toward more integration of robotic manufacturing and laboratory research with corporate office space, we believe we can create environments that spark innovation within our clients’ organizations.”
