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 …

Back in April, I posted about the adventure of writing my first book. I guess the appreciation of this accomplishment really didn’t sink in until this week when I received one of the first copies of Mastering Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 – hot off the presses!

I was giddy as I sat and flipped through the approximately 1,100 pages of this 5-1/2 pound (2.5 kg) tome. You really don’t get a full appreciation of the overall composition of a book of this size until you have a chance to browse chapter to chapter and soak it all in. Eddy Krygiel, Phil Read and I really poured our hearts and souls into creating what …

These days, it isn’t easy to land a job interview. But Daphne O’Leary recently broke through the clutter to score an important meeting with HOK Alaska HR Manager Rob Pilkington.

See how Daphne fares in this dramatic depiction of her interview experience.

Any similarities to actual individuals – real or imagined – are purely intentional.

Recently our Chicago Healthcare team has been working hard on a really amazing project. Agatha Wieczorek kindly provided this write up:

The Indu and Raj Soin Medical Center will be a new Kettering Health Network facility on a 22 acre site near Dayton, Ohio. This 285,000 SF green field hospital is being designed and constructed with full BIM integration. HOK, along with major consultants including THP (structural) and Heapy (MEP), are working collaboratively in Revit to promote the most productive and streamlined process. The concept of integrated project delivery has been in place from the start of the project, in March/April of last year, and has helped to keep this fast track project moving on schedule. The groundbreaking took place in …

Last week I had the unique opportunity to attend the annual GSA Project Knowledge and Technology Showcase in New Orleans – as an exhibitor. Now, I have attended many industry events as the attendee, but never on the other side of the booth. It was certainly an eye-opening experience to deliver a concise message about HOK’s phenomenal abilities and technology. I was joined by Robin Ellerthorpe and Tim Barry from our Advance Strategies group and we evolved our combined message about BIM in design and construction flowing into integrated workplace management systems.

A really important result of our collaboration and preparation for this event was the creation of the HOK buildingSMART web page. …

In my ’spare’ time over the past few months I have been co-authoring a book…a really big book! Before I left my previous employer, I was approached by Eddy Krygiel and Phil Read to join forces and completely rewrite Mastering Revit Architecture (published by Wiley). You don’t know what sleep deprivation really is until you try to take on a new job, maintain a family and write (1/3 of) a 1,000 page book. Despite the seemingly endless late nights pounding away at the laptop, I am really excited about the compilation of content. Eddy, Phil and I have seen just about everything in the BIM world over the past 10 years and we poured as much of it as we …

Patrick MacLeamy, FAIA, HOK’s chief executive officer, has a unique vision for the future of the building industry. He believes that today’s buildings cost too much to build, don’t work as well as they could and don’t last long enough. In this five-part video series, Patrick explains why he believes this to be true and offers a solution for creating better buildings at much more affordable prices.

Patrick’s story begins with A Tale of Three Domes, in which he chronicles the gradual separation of designer and builder and suggests that Integrated Project Delivery is an idea whose time has come again:

Part 2 – Team Organization: Owner-architect-contractor teams should be reorganized into a single-contract buildingSMART organizational model that mandates teamwork and thus leads

…

One of the tenets of life at HOK is to be involved in our local communities to the greatest extent possible. Even in the realm of technology, several of our team members are organizers of regional user groups. For example, David Ivey and Andre Baros run two separate groups in Chicago, David Light has organized the London Revit User Group and I am the president of the New York City Revit User Group.

The NYC Revit User Group meets monthly at Pratt’s Manhattan Center on 14th Street – a short stroll from HOK’s office on 18th Street. If you’re not in the New York metropolitan area, don’t fret! We broadcast our meetings via webcast for free! 

We recently …

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?” …

Last Wednesday was the first time I spoke at a conference – Autodesk University 2009. As I mingled in the crowd I suddenly realized that about one out of 25 of the 6,000+ attendees of the conference came to our 1.5-hour session. This is definitely minor compared to the fascinating keynote speeches highlighting new technologies and industry trends. Besides, there are also over 600 classes, labs, and virtual sessions. Nonetheless I’m glad that we were part of the event, not with the sole intention to promote HOK, but to demonstrate our ability to lead the industry trend in both design and technology.

A little about our class:

We …

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 …

If you’re in the design industry, I’m sure you’ve heard of BIM.  Building Information Modeling is the newest way engineers, architects, and other designers convey the art we produce.  At HOK, we take BIM very seriously, setting aside time to make a day of it.  November 5 is BIM Day!

HOK is on a journey to buildingSMART.  As such we have a large bank of BIM resources (HOK’ers, click here for your support).  For those of you outside of HOK (and even those within), here is what Miles Walker (an HOK firm wide BIM leader) had to say about BIM.

We have officially retired

…

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

…

Since we were just discussing here in Shanghai/Hong Kong how to say BIM in Chinese, I thought I’d make an extra effort on collecting translation of BIM in as many different languages as possible:

Chinese 建筑信息模型

Dutch Bygnings Informations Model

English BIM = Building Information Model

German Gebäudedaten-Modellierung

Italian Modello di Informazioni Edilizie

Japanese ビルディングインフォメーションモデリング

Korean 건축/건설 솔루션

Portugese Modelo de Informação da Construção

Spanish Modelado de Información de Construcción

Do you know BIM in any other languages?

Please comment if you find any errors/more languages and I will update this post accordingly.

Recently I was introduced to two programs, CityEngine and CityScape, through Lee Miller, our firmwide resource for cutting-edge programs (as well as Revit). Developed by programmers who specialize in gaming, these programs can be used to create virtual urban environments instantly. I think the video below provide pretty good explanations for the intent and current abilities of these programs:

CityScape Demo Reel
During demonstrations of these programs, there are always praises mixed with disbelief from the audience. I was quite impressed as well; at that time I was under the time crunch to work towards the midterm review of a 4,500-hectare planning project, and the thought of using either program to quickly generate masses did flash through my mind.

… But what does it mean …

Ingredients:

2 Progressive Architectural Firms
1 Experienced Contractor
1 Innovative Client
A Boatload of Acronyms (BIM, IPD, LEED, etc.)
Lots of Teamwork
A Dash of Design Brilliance

Process:

Blend together all ingredients into a seamless, highly efficient, unbelievably gorgeous space. 

Outcome:

PLATINUM, baby!

View a video produced by DPR to showcase the project’s Integrated Project Delivery (and featuring comments from our own IPD Innovator).