A Message from HKS about Coronavirus (COVID-19)
The coronavirus crisis is unfolding quickly, sometimes shaking up the headlines by the hour. Our guidance will evolve, too, as we learn more about this outbreak. Please come back to this page for updates.
At HKS, the health and wellness of our employees, our clients and the communities we serve are our primary consideration. As we face the challenges of responding and preparing appropriately for the Coronavirus (COVID-19), we wanted to share with you some of the steps we are taking.
We have invested heavily in creating a robust, mobile and remote workforce with the agility to respond quickly and efficiently to issues that may arise. Our talent pool is wide and deep, and our systems are hardened and redundant to mitigate potential disruptions. We continue to make adjustments to improve our process and ability to work within virtual teams.
In line with ongoing CDC recommendations, some of our workforce may be working remotely over the next several weeks and months. We have instituted health protocols for our employees that include heightened personal hygiene, workplace sanitization and online health screening if they are experiencing any symptoms. To mitigate risk of exposure, we are limiting travel, large gatherings and face-to-face meetings. As we seek to provide the highest degree of continuity and progress on your projects, we will work with you to migrate our in-person meetings to virtual.
As we navigate this pandemic, we will continue to share our most salient research, including designing for infection control across multiple facility types and encouraging physical distancing while remaining socially connected. These and other lessons learned during this health emergency can be accessed via our website hksinc.com and social media channels.
In the coming days, let us know if HKS can be your thought partner as your teams work to improve the access and control measures that lessen the likelihood of potential contamination within your spaces and buildings. We stand ready to support you and will do everything we can to protect the health of all concerned.
We are grateful for your trust in HKS and wish you and yours the very best.
Latest Published Content:
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Treatment Measures for COVID-19 Actually Began More than a Century Ago
The COVID-19 virus is barely 5 months old, but some of the methods for fighting it and other contagious diseases started more than a century ago.
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How Design Will Shift to Accommodate Post-COVID-19 Multifamily Living
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Working from Home During COVID-19: What Our Research Taught Us
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Connecting in Strange Times: The Antidote to Loneliness
The coronavirus pandemic and resulting social isolation have quickly turned a hyper-connected world into one that feels lonely and detached. Strong evidence already shows loneliness has a toxic effect on our health and happiness. How will quarantine impact our mental and physical health? Can it perhaps lead to more empathy and awareness of isolation? This panel will discuss how changes in society have accelerated social isolation and loneliness (hint: it’s not just technology) and, in light of wide-scale shelter-in-place orders, examine strategies that promote meaningful connections during an uncertain time. While IRL interaction can’t be replaced, how can we use this unprecedented moment to better understand new ways to reach out, and better understand how more connection improves our collective health?
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UN Global Call to Creatives to Spread Public Health Messages about COVID-19
Faced with staggering public health outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN asked creatives for their help in translating public health messages into work that could engage and inform people across cultures, languages and communities. The audience goal? To reach everyone, everywhere. Naturally, we couldn’t resist the call to action.
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From Expo Center to COVID-19 Field Hospital in 15 Days: How We Did It
HKS & Gilbane Building Company converted an expo center into a Covid-19 field hospital in 15 days. Here’s how we did it.
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Travel in the Post COVID-19 Era: Who Will Dip Their Toes in the Water First?
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Negative-pressure rooms are just one piece of the ideal COVID-19 design response, which must guard against both airborne and contact transmission in coronavirus hospital units.
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HKS Selected to Convert Expo Center and Correctional Facility into COVID-19 Field Hospitals
HKS is in progress with Gilbane Building Company on an 1,100 bed COVID-19 field hospital for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Novi, Michigan.
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Crossing the Threshold from Outbreak to Surge
As the coronavirus pandemic accelerates, we will quickly run out of space in existing hospitals, so we need to start pivoting community resources in creative ways to manage the COVID-19 patient surge.
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Canceling the Social Recession: Guarding Against Loneliness While Social Distancing
While we must embrace social distancing to slow down the spread of COVID19 (coronavirus), it could lead to greater numbers of people who feel lonely or isolated. That’s why we must find new ways to stay connected.
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How Health Care Providers Can Use Community Spaces to Improve Access to Coronavirus Testing
Many people rely on public transit to get around metro areas, which tend to be outbreak hot zones. That’s why health care leaders should consider walkable coronavirus testing sites in addition to drive-thrus. Here’s how to use existing community spaces.
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Five Ways to Improve Hospital Infection Control as Coronavirus Tests Health Care Providers
These steps could help stop the spread of deadly contagions before they reach pandemic stage.
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What COVID-19 Highlights about Health and Schools
Health and well-being in school settings is a nascent area of focus for educators and architects. COVID-19 is an opportunity to design and safeguard against future pandemics.
In places where the coronavirus outbreak is ramping up, health care providers could soon be stretched beyond capacity. But health care systems and designers can draw on a wealth of emergency preparedness best practices to respond to a public health crisis.