Kate Davis
Director – Commercial Interiors
HKS

Kate Davis is a Principal and Director of Commercial Interiors at HKS. Based in Chicago, Kate is a student of her clients’ businesses and believes that design can be a strategic business tool. She is a sought-after industry voice on topics ranging from design for creativity and the agile workplace to office building sustainability. She aims to understand their people, vision, values and brand at a deep level so that each design decision comes back to being accountable to this understanding.

As HKS’ Global Design Director of Commercial Interiors, Kate brings over 20 years of experience to finding opportunities that enrich the human experience through design. Throughout her career, Kate has amassed broad expertise through all project phases, from discovery, strategic real estate analysis, programming and space planning to project and construction management. Kate’s diverse experience translates to a thorough understanding of the project’s before, during and after.

Qualifications: Kate is an award winning interior designer that has spent her career working on work place and Corporate office environments. She has worked tirelessly to change the perception of what is possible for interior work places. In the design of their own offices in Chicago, Kate led an interiors transformation that included LEED certification as well as WELL Gold certification of an office space in a historic, repositioned building, which has become an often referenced case study in the industry around its forward looking ventilation systems and improvement to staff wellbeing. In her role as global practice leader for the Commercial Interiors teams, she leads clients toward transformational work places, contributes to research and thought leadership.

Diverse Perspective: Kate is a female shareholder at HKS, an established, privately owned architectural firm. She is one of (3) women on the Board of Directors, in addition to leading a global practice for the firm. She previously led the HKS Interiors Fellowship, with responsibility for elevating women and the interiors practice at HKS. Currently, she leads the Real Estate Committee at HKS, charged with aligning the firms real estate portfolio with their strategic vision, talent policy, ESG and JEDI goals.