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 …

Each year, the DC Building Industry Association pulls together volunteers from across the building industry to undertake a major project to benefit the community.  Using the expertise of its members, DCBIA has been able to make major improvements throughout the community.

This year’s DCBIA Community Improvement Day (the 17th!) was held at Fort Mahan Park in Northeast Washington, DC.  Fort Mahan was originally constructed as a Union stronghold to protect Benning’s Bridge from the Confederate Army.  The 40-acre site was developed into a park that includes hiking/biking trails, an …

Roughly two years ago (Thanksgiving 2007) I started a blog called TheGreenWorkplace.  Not long after, several other HOK folks were blogging along with me, including Jodi Williams, Anica Landreneau and Emma Wharton, three talented bloggers for Life at HOK.  After just a few months and lots of web traffic, we knew we had something.  In January of 2007 we decided to make it a book, and after writing a few chapters and hiring an agent (Lauren Abramo), we landed a book deal with a great publisher, Palgrave Macmillan.  Special credit goes to the HOK Advance Strategies team in DC for helping write and research:  Jodi Williams, …

Remember back in elementary school when you had field day?  For me, that was always one of the best days of the year (I was a 3-legged race champ)!  This year, HOK participated in field day for grown ups, the JDRF Real Estate Games.

This event is an annual fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  This year’s event raised over $400K for the cause…and had over 2,000 participants.

The 2009 games were HOK’s first, and we had 10 participants in three events.

• Tennis singles (women’s) – Jelena Lustica
• Tennis doubles (men’s) – Todd Pedersen and Edmund Velasco
• 5K – Vincent Ng, Jennifer King, Claire Whitehill, Colleen Knapp, Daphne Kiplinger, Amy Fabry, and

…

As Blake told you, the WDC team is kicking butt in the bike-to-work challenge.  Today we had over 20 riders for National Bike to Work Day:

Front row, l-r: Jack Baker, Claire Whitehill, Pamela Sams, Jodi Williams, Julie Steele

Middle row, l-r: Daphne Kiplinger, Bokki Son, Jacalyn Chnowski, Vincent Ng

Back row, l-r: Pierre Lee, Chris Ryan, Bill Hellmuth, Bill Stinger, Walter Urbanek, Aaron Altman, Kyle Sullivan, Tim O’Connell, Sasha Strickland (Missing Morgan Williams).

It was enough that our bike racks were full….

So some people had to take advantage of the “executive parking.”

(That’s Bill Hellmuth, …

The HOK team, spearheaded by Pia Hill and Sara Rodriguez, included folks from across the practice, including Amy Fabry, Jamila Valero, Emilio Stokes, Samson Cheng, Kerry Aucamp, Ayanna Sinclair, Claire Whitehill, Donna Sharpe, Daphne Kiplinger, Katie Dufresne, Nita Tuvesson, Yiselle Santos,Adele Chapin, and Elizabeth Corona. 

Held at the local Boys & Girls Club, the event was planned to help local children kick off the holiday season in style, and help them create gifts for their families and friends.  A number of local architecture firms participated, with each firm hosting a table where the kids could create a gift.  While making gifts, the kids also had the options to dance …

Today Claire Whitehill and I had a meeting at the Rayburn House Office Building (we’re working on the Capitol Complex Master Plan – I can’t tell you any more about the project, or I’d have to kill you).  Anyway, after our meeting was over we thought we’d take a quick tour of the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC).

For those of you that don’t know, the Capitol Visitor Center opened Tuesday.  It’s a huge underground annex to the Capitol (located under the East Front, between the Capitol and the Supreme Court/Library of Congress), and includes lots of nifty tourist-oriented spaces including orientation theaters, an exhibit gallery, gift shops, food service, and restrooms.  It also houses workspace for the House of …

As I mentioned in my “Have Laptop, Work Anywhere” post, HOK Advance Strategies is really into Alternative Work and Sustainability - both for our clients and ourselves.  One of the things the DC Advance Strategies team has done as part of our commitment to both is to take on smaller, unassigned desks (we have 5 seats for 6 people). 

“My” desk is about 36 SF, including room for my chair and file cabinet (behind the desk).  It’s tiny.  It’s open.  It’s close to my colleagues (you can see Claire Whitehill and Daphne Kiplinger in the background).  It gets loud.  I have little storage space.  Other people sit at …

Yesterday, Claire Whitehill (DC Advance Strategies) and I made our debut as geekettes at NeoCon East.  We teamed up to present an hour-long learning session that addressed how businesses can leverage technology to improve process, profit, people, and the environment.  I must say it was a BRILLIANT presentation, even if only 15 people came and one older gentleman fell asleep in the front row. 

So, how did we, a couple of youngsters, get to present at a regional conference? First, it was part of our Personal Development Plan (PDP) objectives. HOK is extremely committed to growing staff and has a formalized review process to help staff meet both …