This month’s First Friday Event (which is usually not on a Friday nor the first week of the month – we like to keep things following organically) took place at the DC office on Thursday, February 18th. The event, Design by Designers, besides being a resounding hit, showcased the design projects our talented HOK’ers work on when they are not at their 9-5.
I must confess I wasn’t able to exhibit at the event, so I’m putting my 2 cents in by showcasing my writting “flair” through the blog, and I’m very happy to say I will gladly participate in the next exhibition!
You …
We have entered the digital era and the use of Virtual Technology has become more acceptable and readily available. As we entered the new decade – 2010, HOK FL has been immersed in the virtual world.
Upon returning to the office after the holidays, we were finally able to experience the new ACR (Advanced Collaboration Room) also known as the “Thunder” room. The ACR is used for virtual meetings between varous locations and other HOK offices. It is a sustainable option to business travel and easily facilitates collaboration throughout the design process with the added ability to view the smiling faces of the meeting participants.
We also had our first virtual Lunch – n- Learn presentation. Usually, the rep travels in from where ever, sets up, and provides …
Some days, you get hit by a little poo water. Usually “poo water” is figurative (such as Worst Week Ever). Sometimes, not so much.
The HOK WDC office is located in a beautiful historic building (Canal House) in the Georgetown Section of Washington, DC. Located right on the C&O canal, the building was originally industrial (see smokestack), and more recently was a Conrad’s store (now out of business). Today, the lower two floors are occupied by HOK, while the upper levels are residential (pricey condos).
This week, one of our upstairs condo neighbors had a bit of a problem with their plumbing:
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About a year ago, we were fortunate enough to have Rebecca Nolan, Associate AIA, IIDA, LEED AP, join HOK’s St. Louis office as a senior vice president and managing principal. Her one-year anniversary seems the perfect time to spotlight Rebecca in our first Inside the Designer’s Studio post of 2010.
On the “very special kind of ambiguity” that has been designed into HOK:
On the importance of diversity in the practice of design:
On creating an environment for people to do their best work and ”selfless leadership:”
Thanks Rebecca!
Previous edition of ITDS: George Hellmuth – HOK Co-Founder
As 2009 comes to an end, one theme prevailed at HOK Florida- BABIES!!!!
Of the mere 40 employees, only half are in “reproducing” mode, and we were able to introduce FIVE new lives into our family. Here they are in their first HOKlife debut …
William is HOKer Karen Carvalho and her hubby David’s new arrival. His older sister Emily was runner up in a baby photo contest, so it runs in the family!
Liam is HOKer Brent Cutshall and his wife Elana’s new baby boy. Brent has stated that the rash of boys are because of the recession. It is a trend so far!
To …
Former HOK Chairman Jerry Sincoff described the key components of leadership at HOK in a presentation he has been sharing at offices around the nation. At his Tampa stop, he spoke of leadership as guidance and cited examples of leaders within HOK that support community, truth, and communication. Jerry’s lesson on leadership was formulated as ABC’s, relating to Action, Behavior, and Communication as a means to become a leader in our everyday experiences at HOK. Two examples of leaders shared their experiences with us.
KIM FREY
Vice President | Business Manager
Kim has been with HOK for 28 years and has witnessed many examples of leadership. She shared an experience she had at the St. Louis office …
Last Friday, the Tampa Bay AIA held its annual holiday party and Gallery AIA exhibition showcasing the Annual Thumbnail (napkin) Sketch juried competition. For those that don’t know, a “napkin sketch” is a thought or idea that is graphically communicated onto a physical napkin.
The competition displayed napkins that captured a great moment or idea on the fly, a cool diagram, or a mini manifesto, all hung on the wall for the jury to choose their favorites. A few of us here in the studio happily shared in the competition, and our very own Tommy Sinclair won honorable mention!
Tommy’s concept:
Inspiration for the napkin sketch comes from the idea that the holidays always …
Recently, HOK Tampa employees Jillian Schultz and Kelly Betts completed the Women’s Running Magazine Half Marathon in downtown St. Petersburg. Sarah Freeman highlights their efforts in the form of an interview. A first for both, Sarah gave their feet a day to recover and then asked Jillian and Kelly about their experience.
SF: How long have you been running?
KB: 13 years.
JS: I have been a 1 or 2 mile runner on and off for a few years.
SF: What made you get started?
KB: Training with the crew/rowing team in high school pushed me to start running for training purposes. I started entering races about 5 years ago.
JS: My real efforts began when …
The team designing a zero emissions office building met virtually on September 29 to brainstorm about the exterior walls. HOK participants included Bill Valentine and Dave Troup in San Francisco, Mary Ann Lazarus, Tim Gaidis and Tyler Meyr in St. Louis, and Jeff “heard but never seen” Sanner in Chicago. Joining the charrette via “Thunder” from the The Weidt Group in Minneapolis were Chris Baker and Vinay Ghatti.
The video quality isn’t exactly Ken Burnsesque, but the clip does provide a fairly rare opportunity to watch some really talented designers bounce ideas off one another:
Previous ZEB posts (in chronological order):
- Onward to Zero Emissions
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The HOK Miami office participated in the 23rd annual Festival of the Trees event. It took place at the Coverings Showroom in the warehouse district of Miami, which has earned LEED CI. Over 600 guests attended the festival in which the trees are auctioned off and the net proceeds fund scholarships for FIU’s (Florida International Univ.) interior design department.
This year’s concept addressed sustainability through the reuse of materials in the design. HOK Miami was sponsored by the ICF Group representing Nienkamper, and Unika Vaev. They used extra metal beads from the materials library shimmer screen installation and recycled bottles to form the base. Lights were integrated into the base and lit up the bottles.
It was a great …
This is a report on the zero emissions building design charrette that took place on September 17. HOK and The Weidt Group participants in San Francisco, Toronto, St. Louis, Berkeley, Calif., and Minneapolis saved carbon emissions from air travel by using Cisco Telepresence Technology, Polyvision THUNDER Express, WebEx and HOK’s Advanced Collaboration Rooms to meet virtually.
The team designing the a zero carbon emissions office building has made lots of progress since my last ZEB post. With the final meeting fast-approaching and an affordable carbon-free solution on the horizon, it’s time to crank out some posts to catch you up on what they’ve been up to.
Finally, a Focus on the Building …
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 President Bill Hellmuth talks about one of his favorite projects: the Sheraton Timika Eco-Hotel in New Guinea, “where the neighbors are the people who ate Michael Rockefeller.”
We recently came across evidence that Nora Akerberg, senior project manager in HOK St. Louis’ Interiors group, also worked on the Sheraton Timika project:
Here’s Nora’s description of the photo: “It was 1993 and we were in the town of Agats, which is located in the Irian Jaya province of Indonesia on the island of New Guinea. My five friends were enjoying a lazy afternoon chewing their betel nut. We had just come up the river after sourcing some small villages for local artifacts for the Timika hotel project.”
Previous edition of …
What makes a design great? We posed that question to David Chassin, an architect and SVP who has seen more than his share of great design over 26 years in HOK’s St. Louis office (Yes, he joined the firm when he was 13).
Previous edition of ITDS: Gordon Stratford – Toronto
This is a report on the zero emissions building virtual design charrette that took place on August 26, 2009. HOK and The Weidt Group participants in San Francisco, Toronto, St. Louis and Minneapolis used Cisco Telepresence Technology, Polyvision THUNDER Express, WebEx and HOK’s Advanced Collaboration Rooms to communicate.
In this meeting The Weidt Group’s Chris Baker and Vinay Ghatti pushed the team closer to a zero emissions office building design by talking the group through a whopping 89-page Strategy Report describing the potential energy use, carbon emissions and cost implications of hundreds of specific energy conservation strategies.
The report documented the results of DOE-2 building simulations for each …
HOK Canada’s design director talks about the Edmonton Clinic.
“Our client, the University of Alberta, has asked us to help them change the world of health and wellness. So it’s not a small goal in any way, shape or form.”
In this next clip Gordon talks about topics ranging from why he is a designer to his team’s design process. “The client holds the secret,” he says. “What makes a really great piece of design is when the actual people who are making use of that design are living and working within it and they are completely enjoying their lives — they are being productive and effective. That is when the design is truly successful — when they are engaged.”
Previous edition of …
HOK Chairman Bill Valentine reflects on the design for King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The airport opened in 1984.
“We were sitting around drinking beer at midnight and then we started drawing. … A billion dollars in construction later, there it was. It was just that idea that came out of the group in the time of need.”
Previous edition of ITDS: Don Crichton – Toronto
This is a report on the zero emissions building virtual design charrette that took place in HOK’s Advanced Collaboration Rooms in San Francisco, Toronto and St. Louis on 31 July 2009. Lots of video clips at the end!
This meeting began with a restating of the goal of designing a zero emissions building design that will reduce the energy requirements for a traditional St. Louis office building of 150,000-200,000 square feet by 70-80 percent. They will use on-site renewable energy sources to get the rest of the way to zero emissions.
Because energy conservation typically costs less than energy generation, the team is using off-the-shelf technologies to design a building that consumes 17-18 KTBUs …
Last Friday we had an office bowling party at Pinorama here in Tampa. It was the classic bowling alley scene, shoes and jukebox included! Many of us discovered a hidden talent and bowled a really nice game, others decided this was not a skill we possess (I opted to use the bumpers!). We really could have a bowling team here in Tampa; many of us were successful at clearing all the pins, strike or spare. If I had to call it, I think Foard’s team won- but we were all pretty close!
We’ve been talking a lot about The Green Workplace recently, which is great for the greenies…but did you know that HOK also published our Monograph this month?!
The Monograph is the brainchild of Bill Hellmuth, HOK’s president, and was brought from a twinkle in his eye into a 416-page tome designed by talented HOK WDC Director of Graphics Jim Doussard.
A “coming of age” book, this document shares gorgeous photography and fascinating stories about HOK projects from across the globe. Some numbers for you list geeks out there:
- 18 months to complete
- 3 continents (published in Australia, printed in China, shipped to WDC)
- 105 projects
- 416 images
- 2400 headshots
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While you’re in design school, they really just lie to you. Okay, maybe not lie, but they certainly omit somethings. One thing they really don’t touch on enough is just how much WRITING you’re going to be doing in the “real world.” Yesterday was one of those days where I just had to crank out some real text, and I’m not talking fun “once upon a time” stuff; this is jargon filled diatribe-type love.
Although I love the extremely open layout of our office when it’s time for true collaboration, the super-openness doesn’t always work to our advantage when we’re trying to do tough stuff …
What does it take to design a net zero emissions office building? Because few of our clients are currently considering carbon neutrality in their projects, an HOK team — with help from some wonderful friends — is designing one through a series of virtual charrettes.
In response to Architecture 2030’s challenge to the global architecture and building community, HOK has committed to designing all buildings to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030.
The idea for the charrette is the brainchild of HOK Chairman Bill Valentine, who wants the firm’s people to gain the knowledge and experience required to design zero emissions buildings. This vision is being turned into reality …
Today we had a very special lunch treat. Some representatives from the Cameron Youth Chamber Orchestra graced us with some beautiful music. That’s right, we got to have a seat (or stay at our desk and frantically work through lunch….you know who you are!) and just enjoy the skills of a very talented group.
We invited them into our office to help us celebrate the Arts and Education Council, and to help us raise interest in the fundraising effort we’re participating in this week and next. The Arts and Education Council supports regional arts and helps them thrive and grow.
If you’re interested in helping out, head on over to the Chamber Orchestra’s site or the Arts …
The expressway is a constant feature in our environment no matter how big or small the city is. The path dedicated to cars traveling at speeds which are prohibited elsewhere is incorporated into its surroundings with only destinations in mind. In Tampa, it has segmented the city, divided historical neighborhoods in half, and created a “waste-land” in between. A similar issue was addressed in a recent post by Justin in Toronto named “that thing in the middle.”
What is this waste-land? Is it really a waste of land sheltered by a lifted highway, or can it be more. Anna Vasquez (another designer here in the Tampa office) and I plan to investigate this topic with the …
A post from our HOK Chicago bike team captain, Agatha Wieczorek (3rd from the right), who has done a wonderful job of organizing our team:
We have 10 people on our Chicago bike team, some avid cyclists and some new riders who committed to this challenge.
Some people prefer to take streets, and we strategize about which roads have the best bike lanes and least vehicular congestion while the rest of the group enjoys their morning and evening rides along the arguably less death defying lake trail.
It’s a really great way to start and end your day. You’re not trapped on some mass transit system, sitting with strangers risking a swine flu …
