Designing a Break Space That Shows Appreciation for Ground Aviation Employees

A new inclusive space is providing ground-level Hawaiian Airlines airport operations staff of all ranks a place to work, meet, rest and recover at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu.

HDR was the prime architect for the project and led the design of a workplace environment that focuses on the worker experience while communicating the tone and culture of the company and helping recruit and retain the best people for the job.

Our workplace design team and aviation experts collaborated with Hawaiian Airlines and developed a vision that has transformed 6,500 square feet of space beneath Terminal One Mauka Concourse into an area used as a break room for recharging, locker rooms and a briefing area that can accommodate employees throughout various shifts.

Elevating the Workplace Experience

Hawaiian Airlines is one of the largest employers in Hawaii with more than 7,000 employees at its primary base at HNL, a major regional hub. The positive job satisfaction of all air operations workers is important to ensure safe, successful, and on-time departures and arrivals of passengers and baggage.

Our experts approached the design with a focus on providing below-the-wing employees a space that conveys a sense of pride. We refined the project through engagement meetings with various groups of Hawaiian Airlines employees to learn how the design could best work for their needs. From these, our design team developed key takeaways: the prioritisation of durable materials, the need for larger showers, the addition of a private gender-neutral wellness room, the inclusion of an ʻohana board for employee socialisation and the desire for collaboration with local artists.

With those ideas top of mind, our team developed a schematic design that prioritised user workflow, health and wellness. The 60% design documents included a fully rendered video walkthrough that gave employees a detailed visualisation of the finished project. That front-end engagement led to a smooth delivery of the final design, which included a 70-person break room with flexible seating for social gatherings and charging ports for connectivity. A large briefing room also supports daily operations meeting, while larger men’s and women’s locker rooms provide enough space to accommodate a growing workforce. To emphasise the health and wellness of staff, our team positioned management offices and the main conference room, which are both primarily occupied through the day, near sources of natural light to provide a sense of connection to the outdoors.

Low-Cost, High-Impact Design

Historically, below-the-wing air operations support spaces have been designed with a priority for functionality over aesthetics. Spurred by the discovery of an employee-painted mural on a wall inside the old support space, the Hawaiian Airlines airport operations support space provided our team an opportunity to rethink the traditional utilitarian mindset with a design that prioritised comfort, color, experience and workplace pride.

The industrial character of the building and the need for durability led to an industrial design concept – crafted by our interior design experts. It blends the grit and raw detail of the concrete with vivid pops of color on painted walls. Our design also dedicated wall space for the airline to install murals designed by local artists to enhance color and the feeling of community. The floors of the interior space — stained with bright colors — provide an economical, yet environmentally responsible alternative to tile by reducing future waste stream, embodied carbon and lifecycle cost. We also maximised our use of space in the design by installing steel benches around the perimeter of the community area to provide additional seating options for large groups.

The final product was a low-cost, high-impact design that aligned with the needs of the employee experience and delivered the project below budget.

Opened in March 2024 following a traditional Hawaiian blessing ceremony, the Hawaiian Airlines airport operations support space was the recipient of the 2024 People’s Choice Award from the American Institute of Architects Honolulu.