The bobblehead created for Bill Valentine is an award that will travel worldwide to recognize offices and teams for advancing the HOK Sustainable Roadmap.
The Roadmap is taking sustainability to the next level at HOK globally. It was launched with a series of workshops at offices worldwide that generated ideas to reach the goals of the Roadmap. I previously blogged about the goals in an earlier post “On the (Sustainable) Road | Some Ideas from Tampa” (http://hoklife.com/2010/07/07/on-the-sustainable-road-some-ideas-from-tampa/), which briefly described some ways HOK is measuring and recording our progress.
“Bill” has visited a few locations to award ideas that included incentives for becoming a new LEED® AP and creating a green scorecard for catering office luncheons and L-n-L presentations. …
Todd Halamka and his team in Chicago have come up with the design of HOK’s first green parking garage. Greenway Self-Park is an 11-story energy-efficient parking garage located in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, at the corner of Clark and Kinzie. The team is pursuing LEED certification for the structure, which was developed by Friedman Partners. Fast Company, World Architecture, Big Think and Inhabitat are among the sites that have featured the project. Here’s a Flickr set of images.
Sustainable features include a cistern rain water collection system and electric car plug-in stations. A 12-paired array of vertical turbines on the southwest …
Data.
Most of you had one of two things pop into your mind, the guy from Star Trek or Microsoft Excel.
While I’m not necessarily mocking either of those, neither are good examples of data that I’d want to party with. However, it’s these mind-numbing misinterpretations of what is potentially an exciting way to look at our society, the things we know and the things we create.
On the sustainability front, I’ve written about things like IBM’s ‘Smarter Planet’ campaign and how the notion of public policy and connected information can help us create the types of communities and societies that build better cities and infrastructure. I’ve also written about exciting things …
Still hell hot in DC…still a good time to curl up somewhere cool and surf great posts on Work+Place. This week’s “best of” includes:
- Vision for the Workplace. A colleague asked me a funny question about vision sessions – essentially, who wants a crappy office? Sadly…some people do!
- Telecommuting. Catherine Haley exhaults the US government for encouraging employees to work from home (and wishes they’d do it more often for the sake of her commute among other reasons).
- Fonts? Susan Baerwald explains how Gothic can save the environment.
- Etiquitte. Sometimes you just need to tell people how to be considerate in the office - some snarky ideas via the New York subway system!
Check …
This past year I have had the pleasure of getting to spend time in the City of Birmingham. And, I must admit, as I learn and see more of the City, I just can’t get enough. (One of my favorite destinations is Pepper Place… great shops, restaurants, businesses, and people!) Pepper Place also happens to be the introduction location of HOK to the amazing team at Green Building Focus… thanks to Cathy Crenshaw.
Green Building Focus will be holding its annual conference in downtown Birmingham at the end of this month. Not only does the GBF team do a great job of bringing international technologies, trends, and products to the region, …
I recently read a book whose subject matter typically would not hold my attention. The writing style of the author however was fluid, satirical and warm. After a few paragraphs of this curious read regarding web analytics, I found myself making connections between the microcosm of binary coding and the macrocosm of human culture. I readily concede that a good portion of this book’s content would be perplexing for most. One of the author’s topics worth communicating is in regards to the benefits of aggregating small bits of data. After compiling and analyzing these billions of tiny bits of data, the information can be used to cultivate and maintain better web environments. …
Not all of you have been to Los Angeles office, and that’s a shame. We’re awfully friendly and remarkably good-looking in person. We do neat things here, like Parking Lot BBQs, pot-luck lunches, World Cup Match parties and (lest you forget), really creative work on some incredible projects. But don’t take my word for it, you can ask bobblehead Bill Valentine. He’s just left our office with a fistful of memories from our sunny state.
Bill(ette) visited us after the Los Angeles office secured the inaugural “Bill Valentine Award” for tangible action supporting HOK’s Sustainable Roadmap. HOK LA’s plan to encourage …
We’re on a road. It’s not a road to nowhere as the Talking Heads might have thought, it’s a sustainable road. It’s a long road for us, and somehow, we still seem refreshed and eager to keep on going! A few summers ago, HOK St. Louis started what is now referred to as “a green feeding” list. It’s a score card of places that the office uses for catering lunches. It’s really a great idea the more I think about it. Where can we make another impact? By the very thing we do everyday, eating!
The …
Nothing symbolizes professional success quite like the creation of a bobblehead likeness.
Obama’s got one. The Beatles have a set. LeBron even inspired one as a Cavalier and another to chart his migration to Miami.
It was only a matter of time before our own Chairman and resident “less-is-more” pioneer – Bill Valentine – inspired a similar tribute.
Bill’s bobble is actually a new award to recognize exceptional examples of sustainability in action. It will show up at HOK offices worldwide, honoring individuals and teams for tangibly advancing the HOK Sustainable Roadmap. Introduced in early 2010, the roadmap is a framework to take sustainability …
We don’t have to wear uniforms here at HOK (thank goodness!) but some days getting ready for work I feel I’m wearing one anyway -
The Typical Michelle Uniform:
Funky Skirt + Cardigan + Sensible Low Heel
For the guys I work with there also appears to be a bit of a uniform:
Some form of Khaki Pants + Any Variation on a Plaid Shirt + A Brown or Black Moccasin
Growing up, I never had to wear a uniform to school, and I …
The HOK Sustainable Roadmap contains a couple of key components that direct us to achieve its goals: Design, Services, People, and Practices. Within the Practices, there is a main goal to “embody exemplary green operations” and it includes a checklist that can consistently measure each office’s performance towards a sustainable workplace.
This checklist known as the “HOK Sustainable Operations Plan” is organized much like the US Green Building Council’s LEED™ Rating System. Credits are divided into categories and each category includes Prerequisites (required items) and recommended Credits. Offices were given the opportunity to be rewarded for innovative ideas not already included in this Plan and earn up to 2 additional credits
I asked the …
So, I know this building has been up for a while, but it was the first time I got to experience it….and it was weird. Partly cool, but mostly weird. Which building, you ask? Why the new(ish) San Francisco Federal Office Building designed by Morphosis/Thom Mayne.
Dedicated in July 2007, the building is the outcome of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)’s Design Excellence program. It’s an 18-story building located roughly where the Tenderloin, Union Square, and SOMA neighborhods come together….on some pretty seedy blocks! Many props to GSA for building in a challenging neighborhood – but, it’s certainly not a place I’d like to walk alone pretty much any time of …
Here’s the thing about the Sustainable Roadmap - it’s really not that complicated. Being sustainable, after all, is partially about doing less for a greater good. Doing less.
So it’s no revelation that when the Los Angeles “Sustainable Ops” group got together to discuss ways to be more sustainable in our day-to-day operations, many of the action items on our list were … simple. Now, an office can be a complicated and hungry beast. It’s hard to see quite how hungry it is as you go about your day. You walk in, you get a coffee. You turn on a light, you turn on your computer. There’s the emails to read, the instructions to remember. You print out a …
You think I have flipped with my new addiction to the ‘open space’ of biomimicry. But below, a FastCompany article/series called ”Case Studies in Sustainability: The Designer’s Accord“ is yet another cool dose, this time with IDEO, an incredible thinking-powerhouse in their effort to redesign the internal structure of the USGBC. My dream is that HOK can muster the courage to look at how we are organized…and how we might become more resilient and organic…more nimble…inclusive…able to adapt and evolve with the speed of this new world economy.
A regenerative HOK would be our greatest contribution to sustainability.
Our clients clearly need this and I know if we listen carefully …
Sent to me by our BIM manager, technology guru, sustainable enthusiast, former industrial designer, enlightened thinker and jack of all trades… Dave Ivey. Thanks for a funny start to Monday Dave.
Is it possible to design a market-rate, zero carbon emissions office building in St. Louis? A dedicated team led by HOK and our friends at The Weidt Group decided to find out. The exciting news is that though a variety of conditions — from the climate to the cheap electricity — made St. Louis a challenging location, the answer is YES! And the design process will transfer to most North American cities.
We’ll share details about the design and process …
Rain’s in the forecast and so what better excuse do I have to post-pone that massive amount of yardwork I would love to be doing to bring you a bit more….Freno! Matt showed me the video he and Javier, another co-hort from Planning who also sits next to Matt, created showing the features of this product. I’ve embedded the video below, but for those of you more literary types, here’s the deal in print.
To touch on what we covered in the last post, Freno is what we call a segmental wall system, it’s basically a kit of 3 concrete parts that are precast just like building blocks in a variety of arrangements to accommodate any site’s installation …
As many of you know, our own Leigh Stringer has been hitting the talk circuit pretty hard to promote sustainability in the office (and her book, The Green Workplace). Last Wednesday, Leigh had the opportunity to speak to the U.S. Green Building Council’s National Capital Region chapter.
Following an introduction and update on the chapter’s activities by Executive Director Tom Mawson, and a thoughtful introduction by Laura Schonfeld (Secretary of the Board of Directors), Leigh took to the stage.
Her presentation discussed the context for the book, AHA! moments she had while writing it, and an analysis of what is coming down the pipeline …
Today is Earth Day and HOK offices everywhere are celebrating through participation in “Lights Out: Go Barefoot Day.” Beginning at 10:00 am, and for four consecutive hours, we are working in the studio with the lights out! The Tampa office is located on the 18th floor of an office tower therefore we coordinated with building management to manually shut off our lights to work under natural light conditions.
Coincidentally, a few designers were able to attend a Lutron lunch and learn presentation on office daylighting and the integration of dimming and shading. Juan Figueroa explained that 39% of energy use in an office is for lighting and shared this graph that illustrates how much it costs to generate ONE watt and …
In honor of the impending Earth Day, and to celebrate National Landscape Architecture Month, let’s talk rain gardens! I’ll pause for oohs and aahs.
Here in the Planning Group we’re always trying to come up with an ideal way to deal with rainwater on-site rather than piping it. We’ve tried infiltration fields, bioswales, rain gardens, etc etc. These all work when you have plenty of space, permeable surface, and the option to alter topography on sites. This, as you can imagine, gets a bit difficult when you’re in the middle of a city…in the middle of a street…
Urban rain …
Every year HOK holds an event (pending copyright, so it’s super official) to celebrate Earth Day. We call it “Go Barefoot Day” and it all revolves around decreasing your environmental footprint. I’m not going to spoil the update from corporate, BUT I will share the cool events that we have planned for “Go Barefoot WEEK” in Chicago. I would like to highlight the effort that we are having on Friday with other design firms in Chicago (Gensler, OWPP / Cannon, Goettsch Partners and Perkins and Will). Competitors on paper, but allies when it comes to the sustainable design movement around Chicago and the world.
Thanks to all the wonderful members of the HOK Chicago sustainable design group that made this upcoming …
There’s a great debate and short article over at ‘Off the Green Wall’ about whether the title of ‘Chief Sustainbility Officer’ title is a dying breed.
Check it out here.
What do you think? I know you all have an opinion on this one! 
For all you chaps who didnt know. I’m also blogging (1 post so far) over at my friend Martin’s blog called “Off the Green Wall“. Martin is the president of Ecoscorecard along with his two business partners Paul and David. These guys are all around awesome, but I’ll save that for another post.
The important thing is that you watch this TEDx Atlanta talk by Gregory Todd Jones about cooperation and collaboration in networks and how vital it is to understanding this movement we’re all in. It’s less about cars, people, buildings and food and more about ourselves and communication.
After you watch, go on over to Off the Green Wall to read …
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 …
As the Chicago, New York, and DC offices start to emerge from there winter slumbers talk around the office turns to who is going to bike to work and how are they are going to do it? What kind of bike? Clothing? Best routes to take? Well that last question just to easier for the newbie to answer thanks to Google Maps Bicycling.
Over the past few months Google has been scouting and documenting bike lanes in partnership with Rails-to-Trails Conservancy to provide biking directions in major cities across the US. It can even recommend routes to avoid big hills and heavily congested streets.
I know we all have our …
Robert Frost’s classic poem about the choices that we make in life says it all:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Having received an HOK All Staff email from Bill Valentine on Wednesday evening entitled, “HOK Sustainable Roadmap”, I assumed that our “Bill Valentine Presentation on Sustainable Design” scheduled for the following day (Thursday, February 25th) would be more or less the same discussion. The content of the email message articulated HOK’s commitment to our new Sustainable Roadmap which establishes sustainability goals, actions and metrics, integrating them into a clear framework to be employed throughout the firm. Bill’s email made it …
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 …
This is a little advertising that IBM does at the end of some of the sponsored TED talks, but it’s absolutely inspring on a number of different levels.
1. The Big Idea: I’ll start of with the quote in the beginning. “US traffic accounts for 45% of the worlds air pollution.” That in itself is staggering, but not surprising. The big idea behind IBM’s technology is that they have developed a way to charge (toll-booth free & convenient for the driver) a “congestion charge” for Stockholm, Sweden. This is to ensure that those who drive are paying for the convenience (and pollution) that they account for. It’s like sub-metering energy or water consumption. Once people realize that others aren’t …
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 …
About the same time the United Nations Climate Change Conference was taking place in Copenhagen in December, Stan Wrzeski, LEED AP, joined HOK’s Sustainability Consulting group as director of carbon and climate action. Intrigued by Stan’s title and equally unique resume, I gave him a call in HOK’s San Francisco office, where he’s based, to ask “Five Questions.”
1. You are the director of carbon and climate action at HOK, and your bio says you will be “identifying and pursuing carbon market opportunities.” What does this mean?
SW: I think it means HOK is drawing a much bigger circle around what we do. The word “carbon” …
