Process-Driven Facility Designed To Optimize Office, Fabrication Spaces

H. Hendy Associates, an interior architecture and planning firm, designed a new Southern California manufacturing facility for MEP leader Southland Industries.

H. Hendy Associates (Hendy), an interior architecture and planning firm based in Newport Beach, CA, recently completed a new Southern California office space and fabrication facility for Southland Industries, one of the largest mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems firms in the nation. Hendy delivered a process-driven and employee-centric environment designed to enhance Southland’s integrated solutions across the entire building life cycle. Founded in 1949, Southland delivers customized engineering, construction, building automation, service, and energy capabilities as standalone services or as integrated solutions.fabrication facility

Previously dispersed among two buildings, Southland’s new 160,000 square-foot fabrication facility unites employees across departments within a cohesive floor plan. The new layout creates synergy among processes and teams and provides Southland with the environment to continue to produce results that have earned the firm its reputation as an industry leader of next-generation products and equipment configurations.

“Southland’s new facility seamlessly reflects its holistic approach to building performance and celebrates the firm’s deep commitment to its people,” said Carolina Weidler, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and H. Hendy Associates project director. “Working against a tight project timeline called for an innovative design approach — one that pushed for collaboration between client, general contractor, interior architect and vendors — enabling us to create a cohesive and enjoyable work environment for Southland employees on time and budget.”

With the goal to enhance the way in which space is used within Southland, Hendy’s Science and Technology Studio measured the number of steps it would take employees to travel to key areas within the facility and designed pathways throughout the floor plan to support optimal navigation patterns. Using this insight to inform its design, Hendy delivered a highly-efficient working environment that promotes productivity, collaboration, and quality Southland services and solutions.

To promote innovation and creativity, Hendy incorporated an all-new research and development center as well as spaces designed to hold newer and larger equipment. The new workspace also contributes to the firm’s recruitment and retention goals and includes employee-centric elements and amenity spaces such as a break room, centrally-located restrooms, showers, and a “fun zone” with arcade games and lounge areas.fabrication facility

“As a company that has always prided itself on innovation and collaboration, we were craving high-performance work and fabrication spaces that could serve to enhance our commitment to integrated solutions, our design-build-maintain model, and an environment that serves our most important asset: our people,” said Southland Industries’ vice president and division leader Payman Farrokhyar. “Hendy’s design of our new facility not only delivers on Southland’s business objectives but will help us move our 70-year history of serving MEP industries forward for future generations.”