Most architects with the prominence and portfolio of Gyo Obata are expected to publish some type of vanity book honoring their work and career.

Gyo wanted to mix it up a bit.

Rather than producing a standard puff-piece homage to himself, he decided to include the perspectives of his clients (what a novel concept). Active listening has always been a signature element of Gyo’s work, so the approach is fitting – and refreshing.

Published by The Images Publishing Group, Gyo Obata: Architect | Clients | Reflections features 30 projects spanning five decades – and stretching from St. Louis to Saudi Arabia.

The new book also includes …

Last week Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino from Tinker London gave a lunch lecture at HOK London about digital data and the city.

I had met Alexandra at liftconference this spring, where she was giving a short talk on her firm’s work (here a link to her talk). And immediately I thought: that’s a great topic for a lunch talk at HOK.

We provided Alex with a good audience – in spite of the sunny weather outside the boardroom was packed with people.

Tinker London

Alex is the founder of Tinker London, a digital and interactive design firm. She specializes in an area called “the internet of things” – a way of linking objects to the internet and get usable data out of them. …

As a final hurrah for our Architecture in Schools Students, we took a “green tour” of the Washington Nationals Baseball Stadium.  It was a fantastic way to get the kids excited about design, and about green.  The tour focused on the history of “green,” green design of the stadium, green operations at the stadium, and also included a few fun bits for the kids: a visit to the press box, the Nats Clubhouse (aka locker room), and the dugout.  Check out some pix from the event:

A few notes on the show:

• Upside down sticker on the dual flush toilet – oops!
• The final picture in this set shows me (black shirt & jeans) with the girl who

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It turns out the 40th anniversary of the original Earth Day intersects with the 30th service anniversary of our very own Earth Mother: Mary Ann Lazarus.

We celebrated this sweet synergy with some delicious green and white cupcakes. Sharing guest-of-honor duties was the incomparable Joyce Saunders (MAL’s right-hand gal), who recently marked her own milestone (25-year) HOK anniversary.

This greened-at-the-hip duo has worked together to advance sustainability within HOK – guiding it from an intriguing idea, to a fringe movement, to a specialty group, to an integral part of our entire practice.

During a brief tribute, Vice …

I’ve posted before of my love of all things tetris-y/lego-y/videogame-y.  When talking with fellow designers of about my age, I find that our early exposure to pixels in all sorts of venues is the great equalizer, the one thing we all seem to have in common.

It is with that in mind that I post the following video.  C’mon, we’ve all looked at some buildings and thought “oh, I know exactly what pieces of tetris fun would fill that sucker in…”

As advancers of sustainability in the built environment, we’re excited when we are able to move forward on a commission that seeks to further our sustainable mission. We’re ecstatic when those plans could help set a precedent for the federal government in the modernization of their building portfolio.

Cue the Excitement
On February 18, the GSA presented Mortenson Construction with a signed solicitation offer and award document for the Design/Build Modernization of the Byron G. Rogers Federal Office Building. A pursuit that began in August, six months prior to the award, it involved two phases – Phase I to show our qualifications and Phase II to present our design …

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!

“While it is well enough to leave footprints on the sands of time, it is even more important to make sure they point in a commendable direction.”
- James Branch Cabell (1879-1958), Author

Kassabaum, Obata + Hellmuth campaign for their earlier selves at HOK’s 25th anniversary celebration in 1980.

Landscape Architect Bob Belden soaks up studio life in the 1960s.

Hong Kong employees burn the midnight oil to celebrate HOK’s silver anniversary in 2005.

For the past several months, HOK people – current and past – have spent considerable time reflecting on our firm’s 55-year …

Mark Cannata, MA RIBA, AABC, joined HOK’s London office in December 2008 as Head of Culture + Heritage.

Mark grew up in Italy, where he studied Architectural Engineering at the University of Catania before returning to the UK to study Architecture at Leeds Metropolitan University and the Architectural Association. Prior to joining HOK, he worked in the UK and Italy, spending five years as head of the Historic Buildings Unit at John McAsian + Partners in London. Here he worked on transformation projects for some of the most important 20th century buildings, including Erich Mendelsohn’s De La Warr Pavilion and James Stirling’s History Faculty Library.

One of HOK’s fastest-growing markets …

This morning I was just introduced to this oldie but goodie project by Lisa Rienermann while studying at University of Duisburg-Essen few years ago, the alphabet is formed of the silhouettes of buildings against the sky when photographed.

Thanks to Erdim Kumkumoglu in HOK LA for sharing this.

Hello everyone!!

I have an issue. I don’t know if you share it with me.
I feel that sometimes the architectural exercise that we do every day and that drives our lives crazy stands very far from the idealistic concept of architecture as an “art expression.”
I forget due to the stress and the business-oriented job that we do, that through architecture we can create ART.
Art that is visible, palpable, reacts to the place where it is, to the light, to the wind, it shelters us… it can be an artistic exercise that collaborates with so many other disciplines and shares with us, the users, its protagonism.

Have you forgotten it same as me?

Yesterday I watched a video that reminded me off all that. A video that …

Yes, it’s 2010, hurray. It’s no mystery that technology is moving quickly these days. This speed of change is causing us to become increasingly excited, yet perhaps a bit more critical of our interactions with computers in our day to day lives and as they relate to our field of architecture and planning. As the rate of computing power increases ever more quickly for a set unit of time, we have grown to expect technology to be able to do anything. This leads us to ask the technological gods such mundane questions as, “why do we need to launch twenty different software applications to realize the design of a building?” …

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.

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 …

I just read about this demolition project. This is terrible!! People of the City of Houston have had to work extremely hard to keep what we have left of the old River Oaks Theater and what pieces of the Alabama Theater we have and thankfully so far, so good. But now to hear that Chicago… Chicago of all places is failing to protect what precious architecture they have… it’s incredibly sad.

I couldnt find them, but I could have sworn Maya Research’s video’s for Architecture and Information were posted on the hok life blog before.

At any rate, I love this one about an ‘information ecology’. It’s a term coined by Maya to describe teh way we have to think about living inside of information, instead of just viewing it. That is the way they describe our mindset will have to be if we want to have the next big breakthrough developemnt of the internet, information, and knowledge. Take a look and let me know what you think. Be sure to check out their website too for other interviews and studies on stuff they are doing for …

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 …

We all have hobbies and interests ranging from sailing to chess to underwater basket weaving. Hobbies in a way give us a chance to disconnect with certain realities of life and emerge refreshed and ready to face those realities from a different perspective. It just so happens that my hobby is “nerding out,” at least according to my closest friends. Truth be told, I really enjoy anything related to physical cosmology (do NOT confuse with cosmetology!) and astrophysics. Humble attempts at understanding these topics give rise to redefined perspectives on life, and it’s that constant scratching of the head that makes it a worthy addiction. But, from …

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 …

A lot of HOKers are involved in athletic endeavors of all sorts (cycling, tennis, real estate games, picnic games, etc)…but two of our very own just competed in one of the most extreme running competitions out there: a Ragnar Relay.

What is a Ragnar Relay?  Well, basically, it’s you and your 11 closest pals running 200 miles through the wilderness over a 24-hour period.

It’s really quite simple. Get a bunch of friends together (or we can help you find team members who’ll quickly become your friends) and start running. Okay, there’s a little more to it. Your relay team will

…

hello everyone! I have been missing from the blog for a long time.
this is my return… with a video of something that impressed me very much first time I saw it, and it has a direct link to architecture and fantasy.

ENJOY IT!

cheers

paulita

It’s Architecture + Menswear this time.

Just went out for a dinner with an ex HOKer that decided to branch out into Fashion, menswear in particular.

There are so many references on techniques and exhibitions out there that covers how this two industries have been influencing each other, but happened to be covering mostly ladies wear. Ran into this site that was randomly bookmarked on my browser, thought it will be worth sharing.

Below is what Architectural Clothes has to say:

Emphasizing in transforming the wearer in a sense of motion state, augmenting the resonance of strong silhouettes along with protection, to augment the outlines in body.
Basing on …

Ever thought of Architecture + Ice cream = Coolhaus?

Architecture inspired ice cream sandwiches, run based on the popular Kogi Taco Truck model, was designed and founded by Natasha Case and Freya Estreller in Los Angeles. You may have already caught them proffering their wares at various events around town — Barnsdall Park, Venice First Fridays, Stories Books — in their pink, chrome-rimmed converted postal jeep.

Check out the product specification that offers selection of  Frank Behry (sugar cookie with strawberry ice cream), Mintimalism (chocolate cookie and mint chip ice cream), Mies Vanilla Rohe (chocolate chip cookie and vanilla ice cream), …

A couple of weeks ago, as I was prepping myself for taking the LEED exam, one of our sustainable knowledge gurus, Seth Teel, opened me up to a new resource for studying: LEEDvisual.com.

Yes, I still had to use the reference guide and the USGBC Colorado Chapter’s Study Guide and Practice Exam, but this new resource is great for people who think in more visual terms. The producer of the content is unknown and the site could use a little TLC (gramatically and layout-wise), but nonetheless, a good resource. I’m not going to give it all the credit for helping me pass the test, but it’s definitely one of the …

One of the comments we hear a lot is, “HOK’s such a big firm.  Don’t you feel lost there?” 

Coming from a very small firm (I was one of eight there; here I am one of 2,400 or so), I ’ll admit I was a little intimidated…but I’ve found the size issue is a misconception; HOK truly does provide great opportunities for collaboration that you wouldn’t find in a small firm.  In addition to having outstanding resources to help with project work (like the Denver project that used staff from San Francisco, St. Louis, and Washington, DC or the KAUST project that involved up to 400 HOK’ers at one point in time), it …

Certain HOK-ers (ahem, John Gilmore ) have been bragging about HOK’s very cool new collaboration technology: the Advanced Collaboration Room, which combines Cisco Telepresence Technology and Polyvision Thunder Express.  Well, John, you are no longer the only cool kid in town!  The WDC office became the fourth HOK office to open it’s ACR for business.  St. Louis, San Francisco, and Toronto already had them…next on the list are Houston, Los Angeles, and London.

After a few solid weeks of construction, the ACR was ready for …

Haileybury Almaty is an ‘all-through’ school providing a British education and Western curriculum in Kazakhstan’s largest city. It’s the first British private school to open in Central Asia. HOK London design architect Stefan Jakobek told me that most of the building materials had to be imported to Almaty from Turkey via an extremely long supply chain: a 3,900-kilometer, three-week lorry drive across the Caspian Sea and Kazakh desert. Stefan said the open atrium gives students the feeling of being outside without venturing into the elements — a nice feature since the winters can be so brutally cold in this former Soviet republic. Related: Cris can name all the “Stans.”

Chuck Siconolfi directs HOK’s Health Care practice, which accounts for about 20 percent of the firm’s work. That’s a lot.

In this clip Chuck talks about designing healing environments:

Here he describes how thoughtful architecture can help make health care more affordable:

And, finally, click here to complete your Chuck Siconolfi YouTube trilogy by watching him explain how “we can take a view on the future and be wrong but still have the building be right.”

Previous edition of ITDS: Dhaval Barbhaya

How about ARCHITECTURE + 3D VIDEO MAPPING ?

Lately I’ve come across links to site specific projections. Latest one came from Tomasz Gil (New York office).

Showreel of easyweb.fr’s installations. Pretty much anything you could imagine happening on a facade were done accurately; from bouncing balls @0:48, helicopter night patrol @1:00, graffiti @1:06, to pixelated facade based on material size @1:10. Also see more for projections onto interior corner and cars.

I continued my search and found this.

Even more accurate projection had been done 3 dimensionally onto material joints. There are sequences when lines tracing over facade geometry reminds me of the time when designers were working on an existing facade re-cladding project, in which they traced over a site …

My personal goal is to continue to capture the HOK love around the firm.
Bloggers Barry and Jaki were sporting HOK’s logo this morning just because they wanted to. Aww! Isn’t that sweet?

Here’s Jaki’s love:

 
And one of my favorite photos that I took last year at our blogger event in St. Louis outside of the Washington University Center for Advanced Medicine — an HOK project.

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