LOS ANGELES, May 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Los Angeles Business Journal has named HOK’s Los Angeles studio its 2023 Diversity, Equity + Inclusion (DEI) Company of the Year in the mid-sized firm category. HOK is a global design, architecture, interiors, engineering and planning firm with 1,600 people across a network of 25 offices on three continents. HOK’s Los Angeles staff is made up of more than 50% women and more than 50% persons of color, with its executive leadership team comprised mostly of women.
“We are proud to be a leader and model for DEI in the workplace,” said Anne Fletcher, managing principal for HOK in Los Angeles. “Along with setting ambitious goals, we infuse DEI into everything we do to create the most supportive, innovative and collaborative environment.”
The Los Angeles Business Journal commended HOK for its DEI efforts within Los Angeles and across the firm. “To improve its recruitment and retention of employees from diverse backgrounds, HOK has been tracking and working to increase the diversity of its leadership since 2015,” wrote the Los Angeles Business Journal. “Since then, HOK’s diversity metrics have shown steady progress in reaching milestone goals that continuously raise the bar when it comes to representation at every level, position and sphere of influence across the firm.”
In 2021, HOK established more aggressive diversity goals for leadership roles, emerging leaders, the board of directors and the core boards (management, design, technical and marketing). It has realized or surpassed most of these goals and recently committed to attaining new challenge goals by 2025.
HOK’s Diversity Advisory Council (DAC) has played a critical role in meeting its diversity goals. Founded in 2013 and comprised of 20 volunteers of various ages, genders, ethnicities, sexual orientations and experience levels, HOK’s DAC has been responsible for tracking its progress toward meeting its ambitious goals. In 2022, HOK’s DAC won Bisnow’s Rise Initiative, a program that recognizes companies for exceptional DEI efforts in the commercial real estate industry.
HOK’s commitment to DEI is reflected through its direct support of the next generation of architects, designers and engineers. In 2021, HOK created its Diversity x Design scholarship program, which awards scholarships to talented students from HBCUs and instructions with a history of educating BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) students. This year’s scholarship recipients include Marco Zhou, an undergraduate student of California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, sponsored by HOK’s Los Angeles Studio.
To find out more about HOK’s DEI initiatives and news, click here.
About HOK
With offices around the globe, HOK designs buildings and spaces that respond to the needs of people and the environment. HOK designers are rooted in technical excellence, driven by imagination and focused on a solitary goal: to deliver solutions that inspire clients and communities.
Current and recent local projects include: UCLA Health Neuropsychiatric Replacement Hospital, Principal Architect for Los Angeles World Airports, USC Viterbi School of Engineering Human-Centered Computation Hall, Longfellow’s Bioterra Life Sciences Building, City of Hope Orange County at Five Point Gateway Hospital, Soka University STEM Research Building and Residence Halls, Sony Pictures Entertainment, USC Michelson Hall and multiple confidential media, higher education, science and technology and commercial projects.
