It was an honor to organize the 2nd Annual HOK BIM Awards, following in the footsteps of Lee Miller who organized the inaugural event in 2010. The internal awards – affectionately known as “BIMies” – are meant to spur creativity and innovation in the processes we utilize to generate great design. This year we had 22 entries from 19 different project teams representing 10 of our global offices. Out of the 22 entrants, 12 projects were selected as finalists by the Firmwide BIM Leadership team. Each finalist team had the opportunity to present via WebEx for 15 minutes.
The final presentations were reviewed by a panel of industry experts: Lachmi Khemlani, PhD – founder and editor of AECBytes.com; Calvin …
Thanks to Dale Pozzi from our New York office for passing along this guest post about London workplace strategist Paul Wheeler‘s recent appearance on BBC Radio:
The open workplan format is facing no small amount of scrutiny lately as a creativity killer. Among the most recent sources of controversy is the publication of new book, “QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,” whose author, Susan Cain, posits that the open workplan may be stifling creativity.
Fortunately, advocates have Paul Wheeler to defend the cause (or at least to define it properly).
On Monday morning, BBC Radio’s Vanessa Feltz dedicated a portion of her program to an interview with …
It’s survey time! For those of you obsessed with surveys (like me), here’s your chance to offer some feedback. One of our favorite topics here at Life at HOK is social media – and we want to know how you use it. This survey is geared toward designers and those in the design industry. We’ll make the survey results available sometime in February.
Access the survey here.
It will be open from today through next Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 5:30 pm Eastern.
Thanks for participating!
By Thomas Knittel, AIA, LEED® AP
The New Year always causes one to reflect on the recent past, but especially so today, the two-year anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti. I have been fortunate to work with a dedicated group of volunteers at HOK to design a children’s center and orphanage in Port-au-Prince. Earlier this week, we presented our latest design to the client, Fondation Enfant Jesus, as well as to the U.S. Green Building Council. The results were very positive.
Our collective goal to create a nurturing and restorative place is taking shape. In many ways, though, this project is more difficult than the large, …
Sarah Weissman, a St. Louis-based architect and member of our Project Haiti team, writes:
“Jeffrey Boyer, a mechanical engineer in HOK’s San Francisco office, describes Project Haiti as a ‘three-dimensional textbook.’ Indeed, our design team hopes that exposing users to the building systems will help them understand the structure’s purpose, maintenance, and importance.
“Beyond this educational purpose, I think of Project Haiti as a three-dimensional storybook. It is the story of survival and perseverance, of rebuilding and restoring. It is the story of Haiti itself.”
Click here to read the rest of Sarah’s Metropolis P/O/V blog post, which explains how toys inspired Project Haiti’s design.
Library at Fondation Enfant Jesus’ Lamardelle …
For some time I’ve been wanting to try winter walking in the English countryside and this year was my opportunity. I booked a walking tour at Whitby on the coast in North Yorkshire soon after I arrived in England for the week of New Years. Last year there was so much snow and ice that they cancelled all the walks as it was too treacherous, so I took plenty of warm clothes for my walks. This year the weather was very nice, about 7° Celsius, so I still …
Bet you never saw the subversive side of gardening. This evil plot really can change the world… well worth the 18 minutes to watch!
Nasreen Jahangeer in HOK’s Singapore office passes along this report:
Instead of exchanging gifts within the office, each year HOK Singapore adopts a charity organization to donate presents to bring cheer to the less fortunate during the festive season of Christmas. We collect gifts while promoting the spirit of caring and sharing among each HOK employee.
This year we chose to buy presents for the Tai Pei Old People’s Home. Their wishes included simple necessities such as essence of chicken, milk, shampoo, body foam, a desk fan and a radio. We are proud to report that not one wish was left unfulfilled.
We also participated in the Boys’ Brigade Sharity Gift Box. The …
Jim Berge, director of Science + Technology in HOK’s New York office, is also the founding director of the non-profit New York Architects’ Regatta Foundation, LTD. Here, he describes the results of this year’s Regatta Challenge.
In the last year, a group of competitors and I created a not-for-profit entity, the New York Architects’ Regatta Foundation, to continue the regatta with a new focus and energy on fundraising. In the past, the event’s fundraising was limited to the fees raised by each team to enter the race, with Project City Kids as the main recipient of the funds.
We realized we had much greater potential with outside sponsors willing to participate in …
As we look forward to 2012, we recently came across a video from Greenbuild 2011 in Toronto focused on what’s next for sustainable design. In this Greenbuild interview, HOK Chairman Bill Valentine talks about partnering with the USGBC for Project Haiti, designing affordable net zero carbon buildings and bringing new life to existing buildings.
I’ve just come back from Paris and can recommend the City of Light at this time of the year. There aren’t quite as many tourists as usual and it is beautifully decorated for Christmas. I went on a five-day trip with a small tour group of 8 walkers, two of whom I’d met previously in October. We travelled there on the Eurostar train through the Chunnel; what a pleasure as opposed to flying, although there were still security checks. Our hotel was within walking distance of the Latin …
An annual program recognizing young design and construction professionals from the Midwest Region has honored an individual from HOK’s Chicago office for two years in a row. Congratulations to Zach Borders, a 33 year old senior urban planner and Associate, for being honored with this designation.
See the Top 20 list here.
As one of the youngest nominees on the list this year, Zach’s leadership at HOK and his individual accomplishments made him an easy choice for the Top 20. He has worked tirelessly to create great cities and greatness for cities. His determined spirit drove him to encourage his clients to take a more sustainable approach to community …
This week I attended an Obsessionista exhibit at the BCU School of Jewellery. One of the professors at BIAD put the exhibit together and invited staff and students to submit their collections, whatever you might be passionate about and has compelled you to amass an assortment of things that most people would pass over. It was quite an interesting range of collections and revealed a lot about the individuals who submitted. I have never been a collector of much more than memories, as I never knew where to put the stuff and properly display it, but …
When I was an undergraduate I never dreamed I would have the opportunity to break students’ models and cause emotional breakdowns. So when the offer to go back to Carnegie Mellon (my alma mater) and sit in on the final jury for an architecture studio whose project was one of my actual projects, I had to say yes.
The students’ project was to design a dance performance theater at the World Trade Center site next to Tower 1. HOK NY has been working on the below grade infrastructure coordination at that site for years and I worked on it briefly in its initial planning stages.
I’ll admit I was nervous to be the …
Tis the season for caring! For the second year, we participated in the “We Care” event that benefits the Boys and Girls Club of Tampa.
This year, the main sponsor Herman Miller invited A+D firms to design a craft that each of the children could make and wrap as gifts. HOK designed a snowflake ornament made of sparkle pipe cleaner and shiny beads. With about 170 children, the afternoon was full of smiles and creativity.
More on the event was published in the Tampa Tribune -
http://www2.tbo.com/news/community-news/2011/dec/21/stnewso17-children-go-above-and-beyond-to-prove-th-ar-336487/
The office has also been participating in food collection for the Metropolitan Ministries in hopes that about 24 …
Talk about ending the year on a high note!
2011 has been a great year for HOK’s competitive spirit – what with a major competition win in the Metropolis Net Zero competition followed by our latest award:
A Jury Recognition Award for HOK San Francisco’s entry to the Architecture at Zero International Competition, sponsored by the AIA San Francisco and PG&E!
HOK’s Entry Board for the Architecture at Zero Competition (Click to enlarge)
The project brief was to create a mixed-use building or set of buildings that includes housing, retail space and a new library branch on an industrial urban infill site in Emeryville, California. More importantly, the crux of the competition was the mandate that the …
Let it never be said that San Francisco HOK-ers don’t know how to have a good time. Take a look at the lineup of events from this fall – and you’ll agree that we can party like rockstars!
October: Wellness Fair: We kicked off the festivities this fall with a health fair to make sure we were all medically certified to have a good time. Practitioners from the Pure Wellness Intl Team, Kaiser and Concentra were at hand to answer questions, along with posture and stress screening, chiropractic advice and healthy snack samples.
October: Pumpkin Carving Contest: HOK SF then flexed its creative muscles with a pumpkin carving contest. Look below for the winners!
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The future of composting food and other biodegradable “waste” in large multi-tenant office buildings is unfolding in a pilot program orchestrated by HOK in its St. Louis headquarters at the One Metropolitan Square (Met Square) downtown.
HOK’s Terri Muckensturm and Mary Ostafi separate and discard food leftovers
A team in HOK’s St. Louis office is managing an $18,000 grant engaging eight Met Square tenants in the pilot program that began on October 26, 2011. Through December 12, 2011, the tenants have recycled 11.33 tons of food waste for composting, averaging more than 1.5 tons of food each week. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans discard more than 96 billion pounds of …
A recent monthly meeting of the NYC Revit Users Group was a joint event with the NYC Metro BIM Group and featured a panel discussion about the use of BIM and Integrated Project Delivery for the relocation of HOK’s New York City office. We had a fantastic turnout and many fantastic questions to feed the dialogue. We chose a few key representatives of the project team as follows:
You can watch the recorded session here (note that the formal presentation …
Yann Weymouth has collaborated with colleagues in HOK’s Toronto office on the design of 77 Charles West, Aspen Ridge Home’s high-end condominium development near the University of Toronto. Check out this UrbanToronto photo essay of the construction going in the 16-story tower. From the story:
“The building has garnered much attention on UrbanToronto for its high quality curtain wall glazing. Green glass, usually a result of high iron oxide content, is not normally appreciated around here, but the deliberate colouration of the glass and related spandrel strips here has received nothing but rave reviews: this is green done right.”
…
Getting my feet scanned
I feel really lucky to be in the MA Design Management Program as we’re given a variety of opportunities in addition to the course curriculum. The latest one was in Chemnitz Germany (near Dresden) to participate in a workshop with students from Germany and business people from Spain. The program is funded by the EU and one of the professors at BCU is part of the organisers. The premise is to bring people together from diverse countries and backgrounds, work as a team and come up with a creative solution,
while applying business principals. Four of us went from BCU, our tutor Ian, and two other …
Introducing for the first time …. HOK NY’s Cultural Potluck.
This delicious new tradition, organized by our very own Bob Elliot, was an absolute success. International food fair meets iron chef equals a great way to stretch out that stomach for Thanksgiving.
The menu included …
APPETIZERS
Thai Chicken Wings
Parathas, Green Beans
Something Japanese
Arab Meza
Tabboule Salad
Hummus
Spinach Dip
Something Korean
Vegan Salad
Seaweed Salad
Salt Fish Fritters
Kugel
Empanadas
Dumplings
Bhel Puri
ENTREES
Pasta
Bigos (Hunter’s Stew)
Mac & Cheese
Arab Veggies
Jambalaya
Cheese Grits / Biscuits
Eggplant parmigiana
Green Chili Enchiladas
Cornbread
Sweet Potato Salad
Finocchio al Limone
Rice Salad
DESSERTS
Crispy Treats
Greek Cookies
Payasam (Vermicelli Dessert)
Chocolate Coconut Pecan Pie
Cupcakes
Assorted Pies
Apple Cranberry Pie
Black Bottom Cupcakes
Derby Pie
Gulab Jamun
French madeleines
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
Bulgarian …
I know this blog has been a little St Louis-Centric lately (sorry! but so it goes!) but I had to post this article recently shared in Forbes Magazine. Aptly and intriguingly entitled “St Louis Doesn’t Suck,” lets just say it immediately caught my eye when it popped up on Facebook. It’s a great piece of writing, and one that other cities, not just not-sucky St Louis, can learn from.
The crucial parts of drawing people into your city is to make it vibrant and then shout it from the (digital) rooftops. We take our digital presence fairly seriously here at HOK, and got called out on it in this article for …
Last week, hundreds of attendees gathered at the Millenium Hotel in St. Louis for the 2011 YWCA Leaders of Distinction Leader Lunch celebration. The YWCA honored 11 phenomenal women who play important roles in corporate management, entrepreneurship, the arts, government, race relations and the future leadership. Included in this cast was HOK’s Mary Ann Lazarus. As we (Marsha Littell, Valerie Greer, Sarah Weissman, David Chassin and I) sat there listening to the outstanding achievements of these women, we were all so proud to see our own Mary Ann on the stage. Take a few moments and watch the video as Mary Ann talks about her many passions.
Michele …
