“Mary Ann and the Green Aha! Moments”

Armed with a low-carbon camcorder, two director’s chairs and a boatload of salsa mix, this quirky band of environmentalists is heading to the Great Southwest.

Our plans include rubbing elbows with Al Gore, Sheryl Crow, Anica Landreneau and dozens of other celebrity performers/speakers at the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Phoenix. We’re also on a mission to gather Green Aha! moments on video (not since An Inconvenient Truth has there been such raw anticipation for an environmental production).

Here’s a short video preview of our approach:

If you’re planning to be …

Last year I shared with you Virtual Tourist’s list of the Top 10 Ugliest Buildings.  There was ome serious debate as to whether or not they’d got it right.  Good news for you debators: Travel + Leisure Magazine has released their list of the World’s Ugliest Buildings (15 selections here).  I think they’ve selected some real gems here.

Again, still missing some of my most hated DC-area buildings (FBI building, shopping bag building in Tysons Corner, most of Southwest DC).

Image source: Ugly Building #12 – Travel + Leisure

In celebration of ‘the Fifth of November’, aka ‘BIM Day’ I thought I’d post some ideas of what BIM (Building Information Modeling/Management) might look like in the future. This could be 20 years or 30 years, or never, but we should never stop thinking ‘what if’. In fact, recently I’ve been thinking about the possibilities so much that I’m getting scared that I don’t really know nearly as much as I should.

At any rate, I’m going to post possible future-casting ideas for the way in which we could be using BIM in the future to harness the power of the ‘building in vitro’. Some of these ideas are simply and process software related, but a majority of the focus is …

If you’re in the design industry, I’m sure you’ve heard of BIM.  Building Information Modeling is the newest way engineers, architects, and other designers convey the art we produce.  At HOK, we take BIM very seriously, setting aside time to make a day of it.  November 5 is BIM Day!

HOK is on a journey to buildingSMART.  As such we have a large bank of BIM resources (HOK’ers, click here for your support).  For those of you outside of HOK (and even those within), here is what Miles Walker (an HOK firm wide BIM leader) had to say about BIM.

We have officially retired

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This guy is blowing my mind – and the minds of people all over the world.  I recently saw a documentary on his work and himself on tv, but this video just captured the incredible nature of his crazy-awesome talent.  What a way to see our world!

Stephen Wiltshire was born and raised in the UK, he was diagnosed with autism at age three.  Soon his talent and interest for drawing came to be evident, specifically his desire to draw cityscapes.  Now, Stephen has gained notariety for his uncanny ability to draw stunningly detailed panoramic views of cities after only brief rides in a helicopter over the city.

The drawing shown in the …

I was cruising through some of my archived Planetizen email news blasts, and found this hilarious image – postcards from Greenwich Village.  Turns out that some people are not enjoying the high-end mall-ification of the Village…and one guerrilla planner-type has taken it into his own hands.

Check out the interview with Mike Joyce of Stereotype Design: More Jane, Less Marc.

So this is my first blog post to Life at HOK.  Here we go!

I read about a dozen blogs or so regularly (design blogs, political blogs, neighborhood blogs, and yes…a celebrity gossip blog) and sometimes I run across something that needs to be shared.  It usually comes in the form of a remarkable design that completely stops my train of thought and breaks into my creative mind.  A part, which I must admit, is not used as much as when I was in school.  For some reason my projects become focused around loading docks.

So I ran across this a couple weeks ago and thought it was one of the best adaptive reuse projects …

I have been attending a conference for the last couple of days, Sustainable Energy for the World: Smart Solutions in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.  Most sessions have been at the World Bank or Inter-American Development Bank so far. Under discussion is lending, financing, equity investments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. for renewable energy (RE) and – RARELY  – energy efficiency (EE). There are some success stories, but most representatives of these entities feel like it is too hard to find tangible EE projects.  Besides, everyone knows how sexy wind farms and biodiesel facilites and solar PV installations look, right?

This is an update of a post I did way back in April on a new diagonal Japanese style pedestrian crossing at Oxford Circus.  This area is held close to the hearts of HOK Londoners as we were resident in the the floor above Topshop, just above Oxford Circus tube state, for a wonderful ten years (my bank balance is now thanking me that we have moved, as I did have a good daily routine of taking the ’short cut’ through Topshop to ‘browse’ on my way home…).

It will be hard not to notice the impacts that this year’s economic struggles will have on our communities during the holiday season.  We will all be paying more attention to our budget, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. With this in mind, many acts of community outreach have been in the forefront of some HOK employees at the Tampa office. I want to highlight some that are notable and tell them “Thank you, your hard work appreciated.”

I have mentioned in a previous post that Kim Frey has literally stepped up to the challenge and just participated in the Breast Cancer 3 Day over this last weekend. She has shared a few words about her experience…

“Despite record high temperatures and …

HOK is turning the tables at Greenbuild ‘09. Instead of adorning our booth with OUR story, we’re creating a platform for telling YOURS. That’s right, it’s Open Mic Night at next week’s big conference and expo in Phoenix.

During the show, we will be inviting individuals to share their Green Aha!, the moment they first realized the importance of living and/or working “green.”

We will broadcast those inspiring tales at our booth, as well as uploading them to a YouTube Channel so others can share the experience. The most profound Aha! moments will win a free signed copy of The Green Workplace.

See you at Booth #3442. I’ll be the guy …

This weekend marked the second annual UnRavel event here in St Louis.  UnRavel is an even hosted by IIDA Mid-America to recognize the creativity of design firms and enhance the communication between individuals within the design community.  The joint venture involves several hours of schematic and design development just like a project would!

HOK was paired this year with Carnegie Fabrics, and the joy of the collaboration was our process of UnRaveling the products they provide, leaving us with the sum of their parts and pieces, fibers, layers, etc to create a fashion piece.

HOK was awarded the Best Craftsmanship prize this year!  Bravo to Kylie Roth, St Louis interior designer and UnRavel model as well as …

HOK Washington, DC

About a year ago, I gave you an update of what was going on in my work life.  Looking back over the last year of Life@HOK, I thought it might be fun to revisit that post,and let you know what’s going on now!  You’ll see from the list below that some things have stayed the same, but lots of cool new things have come up too!

Revisiting old news:

• GSA Unit Cost Study: just about wrapped up!
• U.S. Capitol Complex Master Plan (still going, and I still can’t tell you more or I’d have to shoot you)
• Blogging on The Green Workplace
• Blogging on

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Well, it’s that time…the season is upon us!  I’m sure you’ve been seeing the changes!

What’s that?  You thought I was referring to the Christmas furnishings the day after Halloween?  Don’t be silly, I’m referring to the month of all months!  The one and only (I do not make folly of such a fine treat) National Blog Post Month.

You haven’t heard of it?  Well, I have to admit that I hadn’t quite heard of it either until a Twitter friend posted her first blog for NaBloPoMo.  It was a good blog post by the Iowa Hawkeye’s fan who wrote a fairly short and concise commentary about a Halloween …

Anya, Brett Desamarais' little devil

There’s lots of love at HOK for the animal world and that certainly extends to our pets, whether that’s doing pro-bono work for Animal House, or dressing them up for Halloween trick-or-treating…as seen here from our Denver office.

Elkan, Paula Caro's beary cute friend

Dave, Robb Berg's cow-mutt

[caption id=”attachment_12831″ align=”alignnone” width=”448″ caption=”Max, Molly Hanlin's she-devil …

Next weekend Dining by Design will be here in Chicago! The annual event, benefiting DIFFA, travels across the country every year. Designers team with manufacturers to design innovative tablescapes and dining environments. This year HOK Chicago is paired with Haworth Furniture. The design, led by Alyssa Simons, explores the idea of applying handmade touches to manufactured goods. Last week the interiors team got  crafty in the Haworth showroom. We made a rug out of our leftover Mannington Spectra strike-offs, created yarn wrapped seat cushions, painted acrylic panels, and even made origami! We were very productive! You can check out more photos here. I’ll be sure to share …

HOK Toronto’s very own Sarah McCullough is the poster child for Newforma and how effective it can be. She has even gone so far as to make a promotional video to prove just how cool the software is!

Check it out and ENJOY… Newforma

Anyone who knows me knows that the saying “the way to the heart is through the stomach” certainly applies. Apparently Hong Kong got wind of this, and that is how our love affair began… with food. Since arriving here just over a month ago, the team has taken me to try a range of cuisines. So far I have devoured Middle Eastern, Indian, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Szechuan style Chinese, Japanese, Dim Sum, and even a good old fashioned hamburger… some of these for the first time.

My favorite meal was the Szechuan style Chinese because of the way the spices and food interacted to cause a sensational taste explosion. The wildest food I have tried was fried chicken feet. They …

HOK has come a long way since making sustainability a core value in 1993. As Chairman Bill Valentine says in this new video (see if you can spot the Life at HOK bloggers): “We are not there but we are making giant strides.”

HOK Is Kind Of A Big Deal

In just a tiny fragment of my career at HOK, spanning from September 25th to October 26th, 2009, I have witnessed some of this firm’s best and brightest stars do a whole variety of noteworthy, if not amazing things.  I would like to use this bloggertunity to recognize the HOK awesomeness that I’ve personally experienced over the last four weeks…

September 25th: Life at HOK (hoklife.com) is featured in the St. Louis Business Journal. The article, authored by Cynthia Vespereny is entitled, “HOK builds own ‘network’ through company’s blog” and it features many of our corporate communications all-stars …