Mia Blanchett, CEO, HGA
Designing for resiliency is a key issue for HGA, and the full-service architecture and engineering firm has expanded its expertise and services to help clients meet the increasing challenges posed by external risks, according to CEO Mia Blanchett. “Disruptions have grown exponentially in recent years from public health emergencies to natural disasters and infrastructure failures. It has become urgent to anticipate and plan for risk to protect the well-being of all communities and their physical environments,” she told Invest: in an interview.
What have been some key milestones for HGA during the last year?
We’re proud of achieving our goal of becoming carbon neutral. That was a big deal for us, although we did need to use verified carbon offsets somewhat to accomplish that. Part of that is acknowledging that carbon is an inherent cost of being in business and doing business, but we’re looking to reduce the amount of third-party carbon offsets in the future.
We’re also working on our decarbonization strategy for our own company to create a path to net-zero emissions in our operations. We’re excited about that. It means policy changes within HGA and a lot of carbon reduction strategies – things like transportation, building and equipment efficiency, how we are using renewable energy, and how we purchase things for our company. The goal is that by 2030, we will have reduced our carbon emissions by 50% below the 2019 baseline. Through net-zero energy buildings and resource-efficient workflows, we continue to lead in addressing the climate crisis.
Another big, exciting development for us in 2024 was celebrating 10 years of HGA’s Community Action Group, including our annual design workshop for local nonprofits, where we offer pro bono design work for them. These include organizations like American Indian OIC, St. Paul Ballet, Afghan Cultural Society of MN, and Face to Face Academy
with continued participation by Dunwoody School of Technology students. We are happy to have sustained 10 years of doing this work within our communities, which was started as a grassroots group here at HGA.
What are the main trends that are emerging among HGA’s clients, particularly in the Twin Cities?
A major trend that we’re seeing in the Twin Cities and other places is that clients are looking for more from their design teams. They’re looking for us to be advisers and to partner with them and go beyond traditional design services. Our clients need guidance on things like renewable energy and sustainability tactics, all the way to change management within their organizations. To address this broad range of expectations, we at HGA like to collaborate as a full-service provider and be involved in every step along the way. From the beginning, we do a feasibility study of what the organization needs to fulfill its mission through design and our work continues through post-occupancy evaluations. We’re seeing owners be invested all along the course of the project and in the outcomes of the project. An example I can mention is our work with the city of Edina, supporting their carbon neutrality building plan.
Another theme is downtown revitalization. We are the research partner with the Minneapolis Downtown Council for its 2035 plan, which is called Downtown by Design. We have researchers here within HGA, and we can apply their research and data to help prioritize and inform the plan for the city of Minneapolis. We dig into the why behind how people are currently engaging with downtown and are helping Minneapolis to re-imagine the waterfront, the placemaking and pedestrian-only streets to create new resilient spaces for downtown.
The next theme that I would mention is the strategic adaptive reuse of buildings. We love to reuse buildings. That has been part of HGA’s ethos for the 75 years that we’ve been in business. Reusing and adapting a building is one of the most sustainable things you can do to meet the needs of today.
What are the main industries or sectors driving growth for HGA?
We work across so many sectors, which is what makes HGA a fun and dynamic place to work. We’re seeing hospitality picking up, which is hotels, restaurants, and mixed-use. In higher education, we are helping colleges and universities achieve the flexibility that they’re going for, designing scalable, resilient spaces that meet their current needs while getting them ready for the future. For example, we are working with Macalester College, designing a new Welcome Center and Residence Hall, which is about a $100 million construction project. It’s going to give the College a new student housing building, the first one they’ve had in 25 years, while also giving Macalester more visibility on St. Paul’s Grand Avenue. Colleges face a lot of fluctuating demands, and we are focused on adapting the environment for them, for both the short and long term.
There is also work in the healthcare sector. What we’re seeing there is a lot of mission-driven healthcare. We engage with our healthcare clients in the pre-design service early on, and we use our researchers to dive deep into what the client needs and to understand the experience of the patient and the operational and accessibility needs within a healthcare facility.
What makes downtown Minneapolis-St. Paul an attractive place to invest?
We love the Twin Cities. HGA was founded here in Minneapolis more than 70 years ago. We look at this community as resilient and with so much going for it, given all the Fortune 500 companies that are here, not to mention that St. Paul is the seat of our state government, with civic and nonprofit leaders. There are also many arts venues here. I just can’t say enough about this thriving community. With all those things happening here at once, it also provides access to a talented workforce. People want to live here, and they want to work in this super-creative and engaged city. It’s a place where we see the opportunity to thrive.
What projects in the pipeline are you particularly excited about?
We have projects in every stage of development, from the first twinkle in the eye of thinking about starting to design something, to building it and to moving in. An important one for us right now is at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. This is a surgical and critical care facility there. It’s one of the largest projects in Allina Health’s history, so it is great to partner with them on that. The new center reimagines the hospital campus, and revitalizes its infrastructure, while optimizing the essential services that it provides.
We’re also excited to be working with Mortenson Construction and the University of Minnesota Foundation on what’s being called the Minnesota Innovation Exchange, or the MIX.
How is HGA leveraging technology and innovation to provide the best services to its clients?
As you can imagine, technology is first and foremost for us here. It’s a key part of the work that we do to improve operational excellence and efficiency. It’s a big commitment and investment for us. Currently, we’re focused on our data strategy and our AI pilots. For us, our data and AI strategy is really about consistency. It’s working toward getting a consistent set of data, tools, and automation processes. We’re looking at how we can bring this together so that we can maximize results. We’re utilizing more data-driven design processes than we ever have, with a lot of rich sets of information. We can apply these insights to make our buildings more sustainable and more efficient. For example, we can quickly do energy modeling to predict the energy performance of a building and then tailor it to the unique occupant experience.
