Since 1940, the firm has worked with education, healthcare, corporate and institutional clients to create architecture and interiors that is inviting along with performance and human focused. For HMC Architects, the science and art that promote environmental cultural and social sustainability are necessary parameters for their design strategy. HMC cultivates the best possible team of professionals for clients and views investments in its employees as essential to success. Today HMC employs 323 planners, architects, interior designers, technical and construction personnel and support staff n nine offices throughout California, Nevada and Arizona.
1. County of San Diego North Coastal Live Well Health Center Building.
Located in Oceanside, California, the new County of San Diego North Coastal Live Well Health Center Building building is a Zero Net Energy (ZNE) facility inspired by the local natural resources it’s designed to protect. The requirement for numerous parking spaces created a challenge when considering the needs of the building and outdoor areas desired for wellness. It was designed as the south wing to be three stories, essentially lofting the two-story mass above a parking structure that could be easily converted into workspace as the agency grows. Powered entirely by the sun and using no fossil fuels, the building facilitates improved workplace health, productivity, and well-being by inviting sunlight and natural ventilation. A shining example of high-performance architecture, the three-story 36,000 square-foot facility houses Aging and Independence Services, a Military and Veterans Resource Center, Community Health Promotions, Regional Administration, Public Health Services, and Behavioral Health Services.
2. The Ontario Convention Center Café.
The firm designed the new 1,500-SF Cafe Connect to serve more people in a visible and accessible location—the center of the facility’s atrium. It’s an oasis of desert landscape with seating options and portable fire pits. To temper outdoor noise from nearby traffic, we incorporated a fountain and fencing. The result is a private courtyard accented by trickling water and views of palm trees and the surrounding mountains. Signage on the second floor assists guests with way finding to the new café—which is one of several projects HMC has taken on to contribute to the rebranding of the Inland Empire.
3. Quail hill community.
The new 19,000 square-foot Quail Hill Community Center in Irvine, Calif. is one of the largest community centers in the area, and serves to bring the region together through education and exploration. Envisioned as a gateway to nature, the goal was to create connected indoor and outdoor spaces that offer various activities, programs and classes—all connected to nature. Inside the building, four key program zones are designed: an exercise room for wellness activities such as dance and yoga classes; classrooms for early childhood education and other special interest classes; a space for fine arts camps and adult art classes; and a rentable conference center for large training events, weddings, and other group activities. Outdoor spaces include interpretive gardens, interactive components for educational opportunities, and a playground for adventure play. The new community center facilitates learning, play and exploration—ultimately contributing to the education and well-being of the more than 248,000 residents it serves.
4. Oxnard fire station.
The design was a community effort in its truest sense, with close collaboration between the city and local developers, builders, and architects. The new Fire Station No. 8 is a sleek, mid-century modern building that combines the built-to-last essence of a traditional station with smart design elements that speed up response time. The distinctly modern forms of the structure are contrasted by a familiar brick exterior, evocative of a vintage fire station. This classic characteristic combines with large format metal signage to offer a visual gateway into the station’s vast drive-thru bays that house the big red fire trucks. Instead of a conventional overhead sectional door, a four-fold bay door that opens much faster was selected. The naturally-lit interiors are designed for seamless, quick movement.
5. California Welcome Centre.
The new California Welcome Center at the Ontario Mills shopping mall gives tourists an entirely refreshed, evolved destination that aligns with today’s tech-savvy travelers while also exuding the essence of the local region. The design solutions capitalize on modern amenities to make sure those visitors have a positive and memorable experience. Easy to find, the new Welcome Center is located near the bus drop-off zone. Inside, travelers can discover free brochures and maps, but there are also four interactive kiosks where they can book hotels, buy and print theme park tickets, and explore dining options. Faux tree trunks, rocks, and etched glass evoke Southern California’s flora and fauna, and TVs, Wi-Fi, and workstations give today’s traveler’s routes to stay connected.
6. Liberty community plaza.
With support from Los Angeles County and the Community Development Commission to provide for the growing needs of the community, HMC designed a new center that honors and serves the city’s more than 58,000 residents. The new 20,000 square foot center pays homage to the community’s veterans with a memorial plaza. A pedestrian promenade then bisects the building through the lobby in a unifying gesture and continues to a landscaped park with lush gardens, walking track, par course with exercise equipment, and a shaded seating area. The space includes a multi-purpose room with an adjacent outdoor amphitheater for leasable events. There is a game room, café, conference rooms, community rooms for seniors, and classrooms.
7. Idyllwild Library.
HMC worked with the Riverside County Economic Development Agency to re-design the former variety store building. The roof was opened up and raised about 15 feet—allowing sunlight to flood the space and make it feel twice its size. The addition of steel support columns and exposed laminated white cedar beams took the space from a dark, boring and beige block building to a rustic, modern piece of architecture with wonderfully day-lit reading rooms. An infusion of contextual materials and colors liven up the inside and outside of the building.
8. Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility.
Architecture has a significant impact on the human psyche. Especially when the space you occupy is a prison. And while prisons are generally thought of as places to detain and punish lawbreakers, the firm took up the charge to change the vision hope that the Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility can do more and transform inmates’ lives. They created a solution that responded to their vision of a normal treatment environment that feels more like a campus community. A light color palette, soft and varied materials (including wood and glass), better acoustics, and ample natural light—all of which have been shown to reduce anger, stress, anxiety, sadness and depression. Unlike traditional prisons, where most services are housed centrally in enclosed environments with little natural light or outdoor space, this campus is divided into zones—administrative, communal, programmatic and housing— connected by a central quad or village green intended for recreation, akin to a typical university. Outdoor space encourages supervised interaction and the cafeteria exterior opens up to an outdoor pedestrian promenade and walking path.
9. Frontier Project.
Located in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, the Frontier Project’s goal is to make residential consumers, commercial builders and sustainable advocates aware of alternative building methods to encourage sustainability. The end result is a demonstration facility that represents Southern California’s best practices for energy and water conservation, and that has become a learning resource for the entire community. From rain filtering to sustainable roofing strategies, visitors are constantly exposed to green technologies. The finished project is a dynamic, natural light-filled showcase of architectural materials – terrazzo floors sparkling with recycled glass chips, carefully detailed cabinetry and flooring of renewable bamboo, and highly textured insulated concrete walls contrasted against the warmth of FSC-certified wood grille ceilings.
10. Shunde Hospital of Southern Medical University.
Using a myriad of integrated sustainable design strategies, Shunde Hospital of Southern Medical University was designated as the official pilot green hospital for development of China’s green guide for hospital design. It organized a series of buildings around a dynamic, curved spine to create an “eco-atrium” that has the capacity to handle 6,000 outpatient visits per day while minimizing infection risks. The hospital’s facade incorporates one of the largest installations of Building Integrated Photovoltaic Systems in China, which reduces the facility’s overall energy consumption. With a public plaza that celebrates Shunde’s tradition of waterways and terracotta manufacturing, the result is an open, welcoming, green space that the surrounding community can use. With the design’s innovative approach to create a sustainable micro-climatic condition, the hospital’s energy performance exceeded local energy regulations.
11. Martin Luther King, Jr. Medical Campus Parking Structure.
When designing this new 450,000-square foot parking structure, the firm’s goal was not only to address parking challenges, but also to reinvent the medical campus, create an identity for the future, and respond aesthetically to the surrounding community. Composed from thousands of painted, bent aluminum panels, the 1,431-stall, six-story structure features a dynamic large-scale art installation by Rob Ley. Exposed concrete on the structure’s exterior blends with the featured glass enclosed elevator cores and a large glass banner wall and entry canopy. Paved walkways provide efficient paths between the garage and campus. Visually engaging and timeless—the clean and modern design integrates effortlessly with the new and early buildings on campus, creating a welcomed sense of place.
12. Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center.
In the absence of windows and natural light, they focused on LED lighting solutions to bring the feeling of those elements into the basement. Color-changing LEDs in the front porch waiting area and pre-op/post-op rooms slowly cycle through soothing colors, creating a calming effect that also helps break up the monotony of a windowless space. And even without windows, the clinic still has views to nature. They worked closely with the LED lighting company to create custom LED panels that combine lights with nature photography. Once detached from the outside world, the front porch waiting area now features cloud graphics that mimic the sky, and LED clerestories at the providers’ offices appear to open up to a forest canopy.
13. San Diego State University Zura Hall Renovation.
Originally built in 1968, Zura Hall lacked community spaces for students and the three bedroom wings were disconnected. Using the CSU system’s Collaborative Design-Build process, the team was able to complete the project with an accelerated schedule for the September 2015 grand opening. They enclosed the existing core around the elevators to create interior study rooms and lounge areas, and also to help connect all of Zura Hall’s wings with each other. The first floor features a TV lounge, community kitchen with large communal table, rec room and a flexible study room that can be used as a classroom. All these spaces open up to adjacent outdoor space with fire pits and a resort-like vibe. SDSU’s surf culture shines through with a large mural by surf artist Andy Davis in the front entry as well as custom, recycled surfboards made by local surfboard shapers on display on each floor. The project was designed in collaboration with Mahlum architects.
14. Pierce College Library.
The Library Learning Crossroads—a two-story facility serves as a gateway and nucleus to the campus community. Aesthetically the project design draws inspiration from the authentic agrarian architecture of the original California missions. This strategy, combined with modern touches, creates a hybrid project that respects the college’s history
while providing an architectural bridge to the future. Learning-conducive spaces are supported through natural light and access to views.
15. San Francisco State University J. Paul Leonard Library.
Originally constructed in three phases (1953, 1959 and 1971) the design takes the library into the future by addressing inadequacies in the exterior envelope’s condition—introducing new concrete and glass consistent with the campus architecture. The massive, anchoring forms of the iconic neighboring student union are carried into the library architecture with the use of sculptural concrete forms at the ground level. It installed an automated library retrieval system and freed space normally consumed by book stacks for use as study and computing areas. Lastly, the designers saw a unique opportunity to create a joint use library and moved the Sutro Library from its previous location to the 5th and 6th floors of the renovated building. The new library adds more space, seating, group study areas, collection capacity, and computers—all while providing a flexible, congenial and powerful learning environment.
