Global architecture, design and planning firm HLW has appointed architect and Principal Sejal Sonani as managing director of the firm’s Los Angeles office. Sonani will lead the next generation of HLW’s multidisciplinary West Coast team in delivering dynamic, conscious and sustainable architectural solutions for industry-leading clients.
“The pandemic has underscored the importance of thoughtfully-designed built-environments, from public spaces and personal dwellings to classrooms and workplaces, and their impact on our health, productivity and overall well-being,” said Sonani. “As we continue to challenge our industry to meet new standards for practice through example, HLW is investing inward to strengthen the foundation from which bold, innovative solutions can emerge. I am humbled to be just one layer of that, leading an incredibly talented team into a rapidly evolving future.”
Sonani joined HLW in 2012 and in the last five years has overseen more than 1.5 million square feet of office projects in the area, while championing the studio’s adaptive reuse, repositioning, master planning and ground-up construction expertise along the coast from Silicon Beach to Silicon Valley. Currently, her team has its hands in over 500,000 square feet of transit-oriented redevelopment along the Expo Line, aimed at creating vibrant, walkable and prosperous communities anchored by sustainable mobility.
The studio’s active work builds on a nearly 30-year legacy of pioneering economic growth through transformative design, having first arrived in Southern California to spearhead the 54-acre production campus and first ever fully-digital network broadcast center for 20th Century Fox Studios. Other projects include retrofitting aircraft hangars into professional cinema stages, reimagining the former Macy’s store at Westside Pavilion as a creative campus, redeveloping abandoned industrial parks into urban institutional and multifamily buildings, and renovating the city’s first historic-designated skyscraper Union Bank Plaza.
In addition to leading the Los Angeles team, Sonani’s efforts have led to HLW’s recent alignment with the International Living Future Institute and Just Certification program, which provides measurable accountability that gives recognition to four levels of performance in six different categories: diversity and inclusion, equity, employee health, employee benefits, stewardship and purchasing/supply chain.
