Tampa residents have long awaited the re-opening of Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park which is situated between the new Tampa Museum of Art and the overly manucured Kiley Garden (design by the renouned Dan Kiley and stripped of nearly all vegetation!). Curtis Hixon is the closest thing to a central park the city has and is hosting a number of events to keep the people coming downtown on the weekends. The city DOT was tasked with finding bike paths to the park, however a sign declaring park rules clearly prohibits bikes in the park and it is being enforced. Furthermore, the park is connected to the Tampa Riverwalk which is a pedestrian thoroughfare that allows bikes, but there are only 4 …
Karen (Kassabaum) Ivory, the youngest daughter of HOK co-founder George Kassabaum, recently came across an HOK YouTube video tribute to her father and sent us a nice note along with this fantastic snapshot of her dad wearing his HOK T-shirt and characteristic infectious smile. Thanks Karen!
There is so much that can be said about the Idiotarod that it just won’t fit in this space. So, I’ve decided to give you the condensed version. Here, you’ll have, the who, what, when, where, and why of the St. Louis Idiotarod! [--Video (my team 27 secs in) --]
IDIOTAROD: Idiotarod pays homage to the Alaskan tradition of the Iditarod (going on right now) in which dogs pull a sled and musher across the Iditarod Trail. Idiotarod is similar, except replace the dogs with people and the sled with a shopping cart, put it in a downtown city, and add a heavy dose of weirdness. [This sounds exactly like my kind of …
HOUSTON, TEXAS – The Green Workplace Booksigning Tour made its long awaited stop in the Lone Star State, after multiple stops in St. Louis, NY, WDC and Chicago. HOK along with Hines and Knoll sponsored the one night booksigning event which proved to be a lively yet intimate green evening. The event took place Wednesday, February 17, 2010, in the KNOLL showroom and in the lobby of the recently certified LEED Gold Williams Tower.
Leigh Stringer from Advance Strategies Washington DC, was the special guest to present findings and sign her book, The Green Workplace: Sustainable Strategies that Benefit Employees, the Environment and …
TED. That’s all that needs to be said. It’s been such a big part of my personal development over the last few years and it’s something that has grown to be so beloved for its accessible brilliance that it’s permeated even the most prominent of new sources today including all over CNN. (it’s about time “good” became mainstream)
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Well a lesser known “baby TED” is home right here in my own backyard, and its called TEDx Atlanta. Some of you may have read my earlier posts about the September TEDx, interviews and more, and for others I hope you will read them soon. Even if you don’t really read …
It was recently announced that the Salvador Dali Museum has received the Novum Design Excellence Award within the Specialty Clad Structure Category.
A design objective was to protect the most significant collection of Salvador Dali’s art while creating a new museum with iconic presence. The museum is currently under construction and has more than 900 triangular shaped pieces of glass that make up what is called “the Igloo” at about 45′ tall and “the Enigma” which is more than 75″ tall. Each piece of glass is different within the Novum structure that overlooks the water at the St. Petersburg, Florida site.
Meet John Wilganowski and Louie Vargas, IT super heroes. Their shirts say everything. The duo is half the IT team in Houston. They are our first line of defense when technology magically goes awry. Louie and John save the day.
These two enjoy making things work faster, better and more efficient for the office so everyone else can perform faster, better and more efficient. Also, they like to do fun stuff like coordinating their costumes. I just had to snap a picture of this “cute” moment.
They have helped and fixed my share of technical difficulties. Thanks. And from everyone who has needed an software update, deleted something on accident, crashed a computer, …
The Houston Chapter of the AIA recognized a legend in the architecture community for his contribution to, and uncompromising support of, the profession. Of course, I am writing about William M. Pena, FAIA, known to many of us here in Houston as just ‘Willie.’ Willie defined the practice of architectural programming, co-authoring four books on the topic. The process of problem seeking evolved over many years and involved many architects working with clients to reach programming decisions that support good design. The passing of years has not affected the process – it still holds fast. The tools have improved, thanks to technology, but the fundamental principals have remained …
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 …
Just this week The Williams Tower property management decided to strategically block out the windows on one face of the building from the inside allowing the interior light shine through at night. The result is above, the building spelled out the word T E X A N S. The effort was created to show support for the NFL’s Houston Texans playing on a rare Monday Night Football. Each letter ended up about 65 feet tall and 35 feet wide.
The Williams Tower, formerly known as the Transco Tower, is a 64 story tall skyscraper landmark in the Houston Galleria area which houses the HOK Houston offices, topped off with a revolving spotlight at the top. The …
Many of us have had the experience of living in either a dorm room or a studio apartment (or both) – but these are typically short-term living solutions. What if you lived somewhere tiny full time? And by tiny, I mean really tiny! Like two times the size of my desk (plus circulation) tiny.
Check out Michael Wolf’s photography of 100 residences of 100 SF each in Hong Kong: 100X100. Who are you? The minimalist? The pack rat?
Ah, the joy of an escalator commute! No stop lights, no traffic, I don’t even have to wait in line to swipe my transit card. My commute to work in Hong Kong begins with walking a little less than a ¼ mile before hopping on the Central – Mid Levels Escalator.
The escalator is 2,600 ft (800m) long with a vertical climb of 440 ft (135m). According to Guinness World Records, the twenty escalators and three moving sidewalks combine to form the longest covered escalator system in the world. The escalator runs downhill until 10 am and then uphill until midnight. (An important fact if you …
So I went to Storm King Art Center over the weekend because it was a beautiful 68 degree day in November and my friend had access to a car for the weekend with free gas. Storm King is a 500 acre sculpture park about an hour outside NYC in Mountainville, New York. They have works from many famous sculptors including Alexander Calder, Richard Serra, Andy Goldsworthy, Isamu Noguchi and a new installation from Maya Lin. There was also a piece from Roy Lichtenstein. I just thought I’d share a few pictures I took of this awesome place.
As simple as the …
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 …
Last week, HOK participated in the National Organization for Minority Architects (NOMA) 37th annual international conference and exhibition. As a part of the firm’s diversity initiative, HOK is partnering with organizations like NOMA to break through barriers by expanding the academic and professional horizons to a more diverse pool of individuals pursuing the field of architecture.
Attendees experienced an exciting and energizing line-up of speakers, including keynote presenter Gyo Obata, who recounted his personal journey confronting discrimination as a Japanese-American during World War II.
HOK hosted a special interactive planning and design charette benefiting South Side Day Nursery (SSDN). The exercise included visioning for a new, modern and “green” facility to …
On 4th October Blenheim Palace opened its World Heritage Site Park to cyclists for the second time to host Bike Blenheim Palace. The event celebrated cycling in all its forms, including a 20km Time Trial, leisure rides, Sportif and provided its unique staging for the 2009 Brompton World Championship.
The reason I am brining this to your attention is that three of my fellow HOK Londoners took part in the event this year.
The picture is of the Brompton 2009 World Championships, and modelling is our very own Tim! Now you have evidence …
Not to be outdone by Chicago, HOK WDC hosted a book-launch party for our own Leigh Stringer and her fabulous book The Green Workplace on Tuesday, October 6.
The event was held on the green roof of 700 Sixth Street, one of DC’s first LEED C&S Platinum buildings (designed by HOK, of course). The building’s developer, Akridge, gracefully allowed HOK to use the roof deck (and downstairs lobby when the fall wind and a few sprinkles picked up), as well as providing tours of the space on the fourth floor (currently tracking LEED CI Gold!). Food was …
There are things in life that are certain. Paying taxes, dying, and me making a fool of myself. Now while I was hoping my life of misfortune events stayed behind in Canada, I always seem to even surprise myself at how it’s possible to turn a simple everyday task into the longest possible nightmare imaginable.
In my last post, I described my final days at HOK. I guess I never mentioned where I went because I didn’t really think it mattered because I am just a personality on the Internet. But I moved to England.
I had been thinking that this move really was my chance to kind of grow up, or as my …
On 22nd September my colleague William Lopez Campo participated in the closing event of Autodesk’s BIM Conference (more info) held in Berlin: a two-round 20 minute(each) LIVE “DesignSlam”.
William and three other participants (listed below) are all highly skilled in Autodesk software. They were asked to do design for a Facade (given one of the 4 sides of a building) and a Bridge (given the terrain).
- Prof. Martin Schroth – who studied at the University of Applied Sciences Biberach / Riss in Frankfurt and took his Master of Arts and in 2006 he founded his architectural studio in Rothenburg
- Moritz Fleischmann - who studied at the RWTH Aachen University, the ETH Zurich and in 2006 was graduated as a qualified engineer. In 2008 he
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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 …
Tampa participated in National Park(ing) Day to promote the need for more parks by creating temporary parks in public parking spaces. Many displayed creative ways to re-imagine the potential of one metered parking space. It is a cool idea to take back some space in the public realm, especially the space you must pay for by the minute!
Tampa’s “Parks” were designed by The Heights, Chris Vela, SuperTest, Cesar Cornejo, Mayor’s Beautification Program, Tampa Downtown Partnership, Experimental Skeleton Inc, Park-N-Squeeze, AIA Tampa Bay, Tampa Street Market, ASD, and the Tampa Downtown Market.
Many cities participate in the event and can be explored at the link
http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id=22093&folder_id=3428&gclid=CLCRg6Gg-5wCFQEhDQodcikgbQ
Not too long ago, fellow HOK blogger Justin wrote about the perception of architects. I rather enjoyed that blog and wanted to do a sort of counter/comparison with the perception of engineers.
For starters, I went to a search engine and typed in “structural engineer” images. I was not surprised to see some rather silly images…but also a lot of construction site images…
The next thing I did was to ask around to see what the perception was of an engineer, or …
The ladies of the London Planning team have embarked on a new seating strategy; Fitballs.
Even though Planning are in a rather lovely corner of the office that benefits from rather light footfall of their colleagues (OK pretty normal footfall, but I’m comparing their location to me, and I sit next to the breakout. Which, incidentally, I love as I get to hear everything that’s going on, and catch people as they walk past…), this new furniture arrangement has attracted some attention.
So, some background. When questioned on the origin of the Planning Fitball idea there were was some minor …
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 …
