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” …
http://www.vimeo.com/5133927
I found this website this morning about Sourcemap, a framework developed by the MIT Media Lab for individuals to share information about the locations of sourced product components and where their assemblies take place. I think this is a fantastic idea considering that individuals can start to take control of where their company’s source products. In 5-10 years, there will be no excuse for “not knowing” what went into that new bed, or that computer you just bought.
“Sourcemap is an opensource project that, like Wikipedia, relies on volunteers to grow and fine-tune the database. The hope is to develop a sourcemap for every product and service out there. It is supply chain …
Wally Hermes Yatch is a combination of a sail boat (anti speed, navigating with the wind, nature and waves), a resort island (comfort and relaxation by the ocean) and a sustainable floating pad with existing technology (requires less power at cruising speed than a boat of equal size, the 900 square meters surface of the photovoltaic panels which covers part of what’s needed to subsist on the boat, a telescopic wind-turbine system and a retractable mast with a computer-operated sail measuring over 200 square meters that will produce at least 30 % …
The Jean Canfield Government of Canada Building, designed by HOK in joint venture with Bergmark Guimond Hammarlund Jones in PEI, delivers on the federal government’s pledge to embrace new technologies, methodologies, partners, and means of delivering service to Canadians. Thoughtfully planned, the JC building has revitalized an underused neighbourhood, uses design to reflect the local flavour of the community, encourages employees and residents alike to use the space and sets the standard for environmentally-progressive government buildings.
The following video explores how the design team successfully met the federal government’s objectives of sustainability, supportive work environments, and connectivity, and highlights HOK’s integrated design approach to the project.
Click to …
When Anica is not doing the New York Times crossword, blogging on here, or teaching at Roger Williams University she is HOK’s very own globe-trotting ‘greenest greenie’ (as he Life@HOK biog says!). I say the first activity in jest, as although based in HOK’s DC office, this girl is so in demand and is so committed to our work that she is hard to pin down to being in one country for more than 24 hours! We love her dearly, her incredible passion for our work and how we can incrementally improve our world.
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Hello everybody!!! Maybe I’m naive or just a dreamer, but I truly thought our world leaders would make a REAL deal out of the Copenhagen!!! Of course, after what happened it was like a bite of the dusty reality!!!
I would like to have your opinion about this matter – please answer my questions:
1. Can we expect anything from the world leaders?? Shall we wait for actions from them???
2. Can we do something about it??? Are you willing to do something???
3. Being American, do you realize your country has the big power to change things? Do you think people in general in the US care?
4. Do you think HOK really cares and does all we can? Do you think HOK could do more?
I …
Always a leader in sustainable design, today HOK announced development of a new green building rating system (look out USGBC!): Checklist for Gingerbread Green Homes (CGGH).
Developed by an interdisciplinary team of HOK’s finest (John Cantrell, Weronika Cichosz, JoAnn Brookes, Lori Selcer, and Julian Tablada), CGGH helps gingerbread artists create the greenest ginger-person homes. This effort was inspired by Toronto’s LEED Platinum house developed for Habitat for Humanity last year (featured on Treehugger, Inhabitat, and Notcot).
Toronto’s delicious creation followed green building principles found in the USGBC’s LEED rating system. HOK’s new CGGH takes green ginger construction a step further, examining the total process from ingredient …
If your holiday travel plans will take you through the city of Indianapolis, you’re in for an uncharacteristically uplifting experience. The Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal at Indianapolis International Airport (the first from-the-ground-up terminal constructed in the U.S. since 9/11) is light, airy, dramatic, fun – and a showcase of sustainability.
During a recent visit to Indy, I brought along my camcorder and recorded some perspectives of the building and its occupants.
http://www.vimeo.com/7938311
If this is the future of air travel, I’m encouraged.
When I wrote about Eric Lewis my prior TEDx post, I was supposed to continually update you with video’s from the conference/gathering here in Atlanta. However, I’ve been waiting to write about the lecturer’s so that I could include video footage which was taken by Unboundary.
Ciannat Howett is the director of Sustainability for Emory University and has done quite a bit for the development of the way Emory operates everything from buildings, to courses, to social events. She is a wonderful speaker and you should definately check out this video.
I love it when she talks about the expectations of the students and reveals that it’s much less about Emory marketing, and more about Emory Education and defining …
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
…
Like any cinematic production, our video experiment at Greenbuild ‘09 elicited a fair share of blooper moments. We’ve compiled a few outtakes and humorous quips below.
Check out a complete selection of Green Aha! moments on YouTube and Life at HOK.
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 …
It was a truly an inspiring moment to witness Al Gore speaking to the 30,000+ participants at Greenbuild 2009. He began by mentioning that the “Green” movement is a non-partisan initiative and that he is a retired politician – possibly as a disclaimer or possibly to engage those still living in the mindset of 1999. The sustainable movement has evolved greatly in the in the last decade and this “disclaimer” voiced to me a rallying cry that speaks to all that make simple daily decisions based on creating a better tomorrow.
I wish I could relay the message as eloquently as Gore, so I have included a clip of his speech.
It shares a comparison of old building habits and practices that …
HOK’s chairman and most vocal sustainable design advocate is blogging Greenbuild 2009 for Contract magazine.
In his first post for Contract, Bill reflects on his journey to Phoenix, writes about seeing the automated people mover designed by HOK being constructed at the Phoenix airport and describes taking the light rail train to his hotel.
In his next post, Bill gets excited about a new LED downlight from the expo and zeroes in on zero carbon and building retrofits as the big themes for Day 1…and much more.
Related: HOK is recording lots of green-ahas!
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 …
“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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
