H2M to move HQ to new site in Melville

Consulting and design firm H2M announced it will move its headquarters in Melville a few blocks north on Broad Hollow Road.

H2M management decided to stay on Route 110 because the location is accessible for clients on Long Island and in New York City, company president and CEO Rich Humann said Thursday. "Our location here has been a great springboard" for expanding the company throughout New York State and New Jersey, he said.

H2M's new space at 538 Broad Hollow Rd., which should be renovated by September, will consolidate H2M's departments under one roof, rather than two, Humann said. The 40,000-square-foot space will also accommodate an anticipated 8 percent to 10 percent growth in the workforce. H2M, which grossed $34.6 million in revenues last year, now employs 215 workers, including about 190 on Long Island.

The design scheme for the new office -- proposed by a staff member and selected by Humann and senior vice president Robert Scheiner -- aims to create a "collaborative space," Scheiner explained. It features low partitions between cubicles and "buddy areas," or conference rooms with computers and large video screens. Management hopes the former will encourage employees to exchange ideas and the latter will spur them to hold impromptu meetings, where plans are projected and marked on video screens.

"It's a total revamp of the way our profession is used to doing business," Scheiner said.

H2M's new home will also showcase such sustainable details as glass walls along the perimeter, which will provide natural lighting; low-VOC paint, which has fewer volatile organic compounds; low-flow plumbing fixtures; and carpet tiles and interior finishes made from recycled materials.

H2M, founded in 1933, has practiced a philosophy of environmental consciousness for decades, Humann said. "Even before sustainability was a buzzword . . . we were always trying to design cost-effectively for our clients," he said.