Partnering with clients and communities since 1940 to serve the greater good
HMC Architects is celebrating its 75 year anniversary, a true testament to the firm’s mission to partner with its clients and communities to serve the greater good. Focusing primarily on healthcare, education and civic architecture for the past 75 years, HMC Architects has designed thousands of buildings and enriched the lives of countless people who visit and experience those schools, hospitals and community spaces every day.
In 1940, Jay Dewey Harnish opened a small architectural office on “B” Street in Ontario, California, to anticipate the demand for healthcare and institutional work that would come with peacetime after World War II. Harnish was active in the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and a leading member of the Chamber’s Aviation Committee. He acquired contracts and forged relationships with San Bernardino County General Hospital, San Antonio Community Hospital, Fontana Unified School District, Pomona Valley Medical Center, Ontario-Montclair School District and Kaiser Permanente, all valued regional clients that HMC Architects continues to work with to this day.
In 1960, Jack Causey, Mel Morgan and Rudy Voss joined Harnish’s architectural practice in Ontario, creating HMC Architects. Together, they focused on healthcare, education and civic architecture in Ontario and its surrounding communities. HMC Architects’ contribution to the Ontario skyline includes the Ontario Convention Center, the Ontario Public Library, the Ontario Post Office, the Southern California Edison office building, Ontario International Airport’s first terminal building, the General Electric Portable Appliances Center and the Lockheed Engineering office building.
Brian Staton, President/CEO, states that, “It was Harnish, Morgan and Causey’s commitment to partner with their clients and communities that continues to serve as HMC Architects’ foundation and approach to all our projects. We’ve been able to achieve great successes over the past 75 years through passionate and empowered teams, and knowing that our work impacts students, patients, their families and our community makes HMC Architects a rewarding place to work.” “
“We’ve been able to achieve great successes over the past 75 years through passionate and empowered teams, and knowing that our work impacts students, patients, their families and our community makes HMC Architects a rewarding place to work.”
In 2009, HMC Architects founded the Designing Futures Foundation (DFF), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, to advance and deepen the firm’s commitment to giving back. The DFF has invested more than a half of a million dollars in the communities HMC Architects serves to advance architecture/design, expand access to college and STEM education, promote environmental sustainability and support disaster relief efforts.
Today, HMC Architects is the #1 ranked education architecture firm in California and #2 in healthcare architecture (ENR California’s Top Design Firms, 2014), and in 2011 was named “Best Firm to Work For” by Building Design + Construction magazine. They employ 293 architecture professionals throughout nine offices in California, Nevada and Arizona, of which 165 are currently employed at the firm’s Ontario office.
Significant healthcare projects include Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park, Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center (both the original and the recently opened hospital tower) and Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital and Outpatient Center in Los Angeles. Significant education projects include Los Angeles USD’s Sonia Sotomayor Learning Academies; Ontario-Montclair School District’s Monte Vista Elementary School and San Francisco State University’s J. Paul Leonard and Sutro Library. Significant civic projects include Ontario Public Library; the Frontier Project, Rancho Cucamonga, CA; and Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility, Santee, CA.
