Who We Are Now, we’re continuing to expand on our history of providing industry-leading architectural services.

By extending our team beyond architects and interior designers to include academics, urban designers, nurses, anthropologists, graphic designers, and others, we’ve created an interdisciplinary global design practice. Design is a journey of discovery for us at HKS. Design research allows us to test new ideas, refine existing ones, and create better solutions. This is especially critical as we work to build a more resilient future.

What We Think

We think that design should establish trust between our partners, our customers and people who occupy the environments we develop. We want to inspire and encourage all who come into contact with our work. We develop locations that maintain and renew our earth in order to preserve and appreciate our natural resources.

Leaving a Trace

Harwood K. Smith (on the left) grew up in Evanston, Illinois. He was a skilled painter who trained at Chicago’s world-famous School of the Art Institute. Harwood chose architecture as a college major to focus his creative talents. He relocated to Dallas, Texas, after graduation to start his architectural firm.

HKS was formed by Harwood in 1939. To this day, the Texas spirit—entrepreneurial, proud, resourceful, and self-reliant—underpins our society. Harwood’s creative aspirations are now fueling ours: to inspire via design.

We consider design as a process of inquiry and discovery fuelled by infinite thinking.

Our design research and development teams have realized that in order to improve things the next time, we must test, tweak, construct, and break them. That is why research is so important in our design work. It’s a place where we can try new things, improve, and provide the unexpected.

How Can We Find Out What Design Is Capable Of?

We’re attempting to enhance expectations about how research improves design. We can develop surroundings based on the finest available knowledge thanks to research. It reassures our customers that our design choices are based on scientific understanding. Our responsible design approach is built on the pillars of informed purpose and meaningful, demonstrable effect.

Practices

Aviation

Airports should be locations where people enjoy themselves, but this isn’t always the case. We aspire to build locations that link individuals with their surroundings in a good, healthy, and meaningful manner through our aviation design. Because we spend more time at airports these days, we work, relax, and buy there. Airports, in our opinion, should be lovely locations that elevate our spirits as we fly. Airports should be destinations in their own right.

Government

First and first, the mission, and then the community. Our government buildings serve the goal, promote a culture of service, and ensure everyone’s safety. We build flexible, resilient, and sustainable settings while partnering with our clients to deliver award-winning solutions. We are responsible to the public and listen to our clients. We connect mission, people, and community in everything we do, forming trusting relationships in the process.

Every neighborhood, every project, every time, Health Clients collaborate with HKS to promote the health and vibrancy of the communities they serve. To assist them, we call on the knowledge of our design team, which has established an award-winning portfolio of research hospitals, academic medical centers, pediatric institutions, mental health and cancer care facilities, to mention a few. Our research-informed, evidence-based design approach ensures that our clients achieve the outcomes that are most important to them.

Hospitality

HKS creates experiential destinations that touch the souls of every guest, based on our eight decades of creating intelligent, evocative design solutions. To develop unique designs for our clients, their visitors, and communities, our worldwide team uses an inclusive, forward-thinking approach. Architecture, interior design, site design, planning, and feasibility studies are among the services we provide. Our design teams, who blend beauty and performance in each space they build, are known for their curiosity, originality, and intellect.

Science of Life

We help scientists discover new things by creating Life Science settings that encourage creativity, innovation, and cooperation. Our design teams combine the requirement for demanding laboratory infrastructure and focus areas, with respite places where scientists may escape, re-charge, and connect with others. We provide comprehensive design expertise to our life science customers as a multidisciplinary, multi-sector approach so that, together, we can develop incubators of intellectual capital that stimulate learning and discovery.

Living for Seniors

We create settings that support seniors in living meaningful lives by celebrating their strengths, adapting to their changing needs, and cultivating community. Our designers start by thinking about how seniors desire to live so that we can develop environments that support the lifestyles and levels of care that are most suited to their needs. Our senior living designs promote personal and communal health and well-being, allowing residents to flourish. Our design teams are known for their curiosity, creativity, and compassion as they create award-winning spaces that are known for both their quality of life and their quality of care.