posted on August 19, 2010 18:39
Dallas-based HKS Inc. is expanding its global presence by opening an office in Shanghai, China.
The four-person office officially opens today, with more than15 projects already under design.
The office will give HKS 24 U.S. and international offices. It will serve HKS' growing workload in Asia, providing clients with architecture, interior design and planning services, said Ralph Hawkins, chairman and CEO.
Most of the front-end design work for the Shanghai office, such as conceptual drawings, will be handled by architects in Dallas, Hawkins said. The working drawings will be done in China, he said.
The China office already has more than 15 projects under design including resorts, hotels, hospitals and urban mixed-use complexes.
HKS' completed projects in China include the $1 billion Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel as well as master planning projects in Guangzhou, Shantou and Shenzen. HKS also has completed a headquarters building for Universal Group of Companies in Taipei, and the Enze Medical Center, Taizhou City in Taiwan.
The Shanghai office has about $9 million in architectural services fees lined up and is in competition for the design job for an 800-bed, 1-million-square-foot children's hospital, Hawkins said. The company will find out if it wins that job in about a month, he said.
China's rapid economic growth since the beginning of economic reforms in 1978 is driving the need for more architectural services there, Hawkins said. About 350 million people are expected to move into China's cities in the next 20 years, creating a need for more housing, workspaces, recreational spaces and educational facilities, he said. China's population is older than the U.S. population, creating a particular need for health care facilities, Hawkins said.
Hawkins expects that about 10 percent of HKS' worldwide work will be in China. About 75 percent of the firm's workload will be in the hospitality and entertainment areas, with particular emphasis on hotels, he said. About 15 percent of the work will be in health care and 10 percent in sports facilities, Hawkins projected.
August 16th, 2010 | Dallas Business Journal | Bill Hethcock