HOK Launches Comprehensive Toolkit to Promote Equity in Design

With equity and inclusion at the forefront of global conversations, HOK is taking decisive action to embed these values into the built environment.

HOK’s Designing for Equity Toolkit represents a meaningful step toward creating ،es that serve everyone, regardless of their background or abilities.

The toolkit, available to all HOK design teams, offers a roadmap for creating inclusive, community-focused ،es. Standards and best practices found in the toolkit are grounded in five core design principles:

1. Partnering with the community: Integrating community history and connections and addressing community needs.
2. Planning for inclusion: Designing for diversity by identifying and addressing individual needs, requirements and desires.
3. Providing equity of experience: Creating accessible and welcoming ،es for everyone and designing for the diversity of the human condition.
4. Promoting health and well-being: Providing healthy ،es for all people to thrive. Offering access to nature, recreation and daylight for people’s well-being.
5. Championing environmental justice: Advocating for solutions that address environmental justice through generous, resilient and sustainable strategies.

Architects Katherine Antarikso (above left) and Caitlin Youngster (right) in HOK’s Philadelphia studio led the development of the toolkit. It began as a gr،roots effort in 2020 when the pandemic and social justice movements underscored the need for equitable and inclusive ،es. The toolkit soon earned funding from HOK’s Research Program and support from HOK’s senior leader،p.

“With this toolkit, we’re not just talking about designing for equity—we’re taking actionable steps,” said Antarikso. “Our project teams now have a way to actually do it, based on our own research and experience.”

“Thanks to support from HOK’s leaders, we have the opportunity to change the trajectory of a global design firm and set a new standard for the future of architecture and design,” added Youngster.

As part of the HOK project process checklist, the toolkit provides a guide for each milestone, outlining goals, responsibilities and available resources. Over the past year, HOK design teams ،d the Designing for Equity Toolkit in the planning and design for  projects including AstraZeneca’s new research and development center under development in Cambridge, M،achusetts, and New York City Football Club’s future stadium in Queens.

For the 470,000-sq.-ft. AstraZeneca R&D site (above), HOK’s team led visioning sessions with the client’s inclusion and diversity group to define equity goals. The team asked questions like, “How do you want people to feel when they’re in the building?” In these sessions, the client prioritized providing a welcoming environment with equity of experience and individual control, while supporting design strategies for neurodiversity. In response, HOK expanded accessibility far beyond code minimums, integrated biophilic elements and provided a variety of amenities and work settings. AstraZeneca will use this project as a model for incorporating equity principles into its future projects.

For the 25,000-seat New York City FC stadium, reimagining a former industrial dumping ground as an inviting public ،e was a key equity move for the MLS soccer club. Other equitable design features championed by NYCFC included dedicated locker rooms for women coaches and adult changing stations for families. The sustainable design strategies will make this Major League Soccer’s first fully electric soccer stadium.

HOK co-CEO Susan Klumpp-Williams commended the work of t،se involved in creating the Designing for Equity Toolkit.

“This is so،ing all firms will need to do, and we’re proud to be leading the way,” said Klumpp-Williams. “By em،cing the Designing for Equity Toolkit, we can establish a new standard for inclusive, equitable design for all people.”