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 …
Hello, Hola, 嗨!
Welcome to GREEN TEAM Asia Pacific! We are a small but diverse group hailing from Spain, the United States, and Singapore! Paula, Jennifer, Larissa, and Joyce comprise our dedicated team working to educate, encourage, and implement sustainable practices throughout HOK. We’re participating in the firm-wide sustainable road map by incorporating “green” into our daily routines.
We have recently commenced weekly LEED study sessions to help our colleagues prepare for the LEED Green Associate exam. We’ve equipped our office with all of the proper resources including LEED reference guides and practice exams to maximize our learning potential!
We’ve also made an effort to stock our kitchen with recycled paper and corn products as well as eliminating all …
On-the-ground at World Expo 2010 Shanghai, HOK Global Director of Climate Action Stan Wrzeski is gearing up for the Monday workshop he will lead: Global Voice, Local Choices: Creating Low-Carbon Communities, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Here is an onsite report:
It’s my third day here, and my body is just starting to adjust to the time zone and high summer humidity. You wouldn’t think so, but the long lines of people entering the Shanghai Expo grounds are actually cooled by a water spray beneath the metal canopy. I suggested to Paul Woolford and Kelly …
We’ve all seen the graphs, charts, PowerPoint’s, etc…, regarding how much power is consumed by buildings in the United States, and the numbers are really staggering. On an annual basis, buildings in the United States (Source: The National Institute of Building Sciences):
- Consume 39% of America’s energy
- Consume 68% of its electricity
- Emit 38% of the carbon dioxide
- Emit 49% of the sulfur dioxide
- Emit 25% of the nitrogen oxides
Pretty sobering, and currently the vast majority of our energy is produced from nonrenewable, fossil fuel resources. Makes you wonder what you could possibly do to put a dent in those kinds of numbers. Well, it turns out there’s quite a …
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 …
You might remember a few months back when you heard that sometimes people mistake me and my Advance Strategies colleagues for telemarketers. Well, today, they would be spot-on!
A while back, I signed up as a member of the communications committee for the U.S. Green Building Council’s National Capital Region (USGBC-NCR). I haven’t done too much besides go to a couple of meetings and sit in on some conference calls. All that changed last week when the new chair contacted me and got me involved in marketing the RealGreen conference.
RealGreen is the chapter’s conference that fouses on “real progress and solutions to environmental concerns” and highlights “the region’s unique …
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 my first time posting to HOK Life – hello to all!
I thought I’d dive in (ha) by sharing an update on the condition of our oceans in just the century since the invention of plastic (the history of plastic can be found here)…
The picture above shows an actual sample of the ocean near an area of the ocean affectionally called “The Garbage Patch.” Many think that this is like a floating garbage pile – a physical location of trash. Instead, it’s more like a rich depository, a sample of the incredible concentrations of plastic that now pervade our entire planet. Natural waste has collected here since there was a here …
I found this article/slide show very interesting and wanted to share.
I’m not saying I agree with the statement that a “passivhaus is the real standard for a real green house”, BUT there are some great solutions.
What do you think?
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 …
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 …
It’s been a banner week for sustainable accolades. First, ENR dubbed us the top green design firm, and now a Design Intelligence survey anointed our firm as the #1 sustainable role model.
Kudos all around.
But before allowing it to swell our heads completely, let’s not forget how much more work remains to be done…
It may not be easy being green, but it sure as heck beats the alternative.
For the second consecutive year, HOK nabbed the top spot on ENR’s “2009 Top Green Design Firms” survey.
Published in the magazine’s July 6 issue, the ranking is based on 2008 revenue from projects seeking LEED, BREEAM or other environmental certification.
In the sector rankings, HOK emerged first in the “Education” sector; second in “Commercial Offices;” second in “Sports, Entertainment & Civic” and third in “Government Offices.”
Regrettably omitted from the magazine’s coverage were rankings of the most innovative, creative and downright zany …
You know, we probably take this green thing a little too seriously sometimes. Leave it to the onion to decompress us. Enjoy!
Great article on home and lifestyle consulting boom for the Eco-Savvy.
Article Here
“Right now is a great time to be entering the design profession because we are going through another revolution,” says HOK Sustainable Design Director Mary Ann Lazarus, AIA. ”We need to include young voices in the mix…we need to have our assumptions challenged.”
Greening a building is hard. Greening an entire organization is even harder. At last count, HOK had more than 900 LEED accredited professionals and 39 LEED certified projects (with 150+ pending). Those results don’t come from spreading magical green pixie dust across the firm. They come from blood, sweat, tears and an unwavering commitment to sustainable design. One of HOK’s earliest and hardest-working green pioneers has been Mary Ann Lazarus, who literally, along with Bill Odell and Sandra Mendler, wrote the book …
Alright! We’re 8 days into the Bike to Work Challenge and HOK is showing it’s pedaling power. I knew we had a healthy competitive spirit, but check out these stats. With 90 riders across the firm, we are ranked 16 of 557 organizations in terms of number of miles ridden. That’s the top 3% of participating organizations. Additionally, we are ranked 1st in out-biking all participating architecture firms.
Within HOK, the DC office (24 riders) is carrying the lead with 796 logged miles, followed closely by the St. Louis Office (8 riders). The Chicago Office (9 riders) is leading a near five-way tie for 3rd.
…
HOK Bike to Work Month is Shaping Up
http://www.vimeo.com/4208874
Thank you, Jim Rice, for pointing us to this video.
With the Bike to Work Month Commute Challenge kicking off Friday May 1st HOK has already shown great enthusiasm with teams from across the firm and around the globe stepping up to meet the challenge. Leading the way is the Washington DC office with three teams signed up so far, including our very own Bill Hellmuth. Way to go DC! As of this morning we have 8 offices and 11 teams participating, with several other teams still forming. If you would like to join the fun it’s not too late. Teams can still form well into the month. For more information see the previous …
So being a big fan of fractals and digital fabrication, I think this little project is most interesting. It’s unfortunate there isn’t a better view of the smaller twigs forming the surface of the table but what a shibby concept. This is sweet design of the 8-bit caliber but I definitely approve and wish that projects like this would get more notoriety because with better skills at fabrication I believe we could incorporate many of these concepts into buildings themselves to yield less waste and better material efficiency.
This is the second annual Houston Lights Out event. Last year HOK was invited to participate by involving our building manager, Hines, and creating a poster design for the poster competition and for all of our assigned buildings that were participating in the event. So we were asked again this year and we have put out another hopefully winning poster. Last year we got second place and this year we would really like to sink first! So please follow the link below and vote for HOK!
Vote here: http://www.houston.org/lights-out-houston/
our poster is number 7 and it is also on the this post ; )
I thought this video would be a great closing message for Go Barefoot Week (we do a week vs. a day here in Chicago). I saw it when I was in college and have never forgotten 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 …
May is Bike to Work Month
Boring commutes got you down? Well then add some fun and excitement by putting your green pedal power to work during May’s Bike to Work month and the Group Health Commute Challenge. This event is sponsored by the nation’s largest bike club, the Cascade Bicycle Club based in Seattle, and has grown tremendously in the last 5 years with over a thousand teams participating in 2008 – check out the stats. This is a terrific event that promotes sustainability and good health. If you are interested in joining a team or being a team captain it is quick and FREE to set up. So far several HOK teams have formed and are ready to …
HOK has just been selected as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers for 2009.
Cris Fromboluti not only has a really fun name, he’s one of the DC office’s premiere project managers and a fun guy to boot. I sat down with Cris for about an hour to run through our five questions. I knew Cris had a lot of great stories, but was not at all prepared for what was in store. You’ll notice there are only four questions, but I think Cris’s story comes through without the fifth.
Q: How did you come to HOK?
A: When I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, I originally went to work for S.O.M. in Chicago. After …
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HOK recently entered a contest for the Atlanta Furniture Bank called Chairish the Future. Local architecture and design firms around Atlanta participated in remaking an IKEA kids table and chairs into an auction item to raise funds for the Furniture Bank.
Our concept for the table was a fun and uplifting environment where kids could not only play, but also learn. We received the resin tabletop from 3Form’s reclaim program, in which some guys at Southern Model then cut into, which created a ‘toy box’ inside the tabletop. Inside this toy box was ‘Go Green’ coloring book and crayons created by Ping Wong in the Interiors group here in Atlanta. Also in the box were various …
Rice Design Alliance and Cite magazine have collaborated on a new blog www.offcite.org and RDA is putting out some very intriguing work for this semester’s showcasing in the gallery. I’ll do a follow up post after seeing this with the FLIP and getting some responses from the locals. ; )
Paul Villinski proposes an idea within a “piece”/installation/mobile home/ studio. I agree with the concept of having artists present in disaster cites to help promote unseen ideas to those of more pragmatic set minds. Great art is a good way to rally people up against red tape.
Mobile Studio Video
Enjoy.
14 January 2009 | Posted inWeird
Posted by Brey 
Hello All,
This is my first post of ‘09 for so many silly reasons that I will not get into. Instead I will recap the greatest things of 08 one more time for all of you still missing the fashionable text “2008.”
And the best lesson learned for me this past year…
Schlop architecture is built for many reasons that are beyond the fault of the architect.
Economical Engineering, client bureaucracy, clients in general and accelerated deadlines… I will …
