As most of you know, LA is usually sunny and hot.  But we have been hit hard this week by a few fast moving storms.  We had tons of rain – flooded most of Long Beach, thunder loud enough to set off car alarms, and even had a tornado… And today, we had 5 mins of hail.. (I know.. its crazy!)

I miss the warm weather…

“On March 28-29,  I had the opportunity to travel with a church group to Maclovia Rojas, an impoverished community on the outskirts of Tijuana, Mexico.  During the weekend, our group built a 640 square foot house for a married couple and their 8 children in one day!  The house is very modest and probably wouldn’t quite pass building codes here in California, but will provide simple shelter to a family that previously was homeless.  The house cost $5500 total, which was raised entirely by the church and the participants.  This just goes to show, that even in tough times, good humanitarian

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Thanks Nicole for the update on our little bird momma…

One of the eggs has hatched, but the little guy is tucked under the inside lip of the nest and we couldn’t get a picture of him. Considering this remaining egg is due to hatch any minute now, we figured we should give it a well-deserved 15 minutes of fame…

While we only noticed the nest last week, the fact that one egg has hatched indicates that they both were laid between 18 and 22 days ago. The chicks will brood for about 21 days before they leave the …

We hadn’t either until today! Thanks to Nicole Walden who spotted this little guy…

Evidently, hummingbirds are rather picky about their nesting locations. No doubt the expertly designed HOK Los Angeles kitchen compelled her to select a spot right outside the window.

That’s not to say she doesn’t expect any privacy. When attempting to get a shot of the eggs inside the nest, Mama made it clear that her offspring are not fodder for the paparazzi. At least not yet….

Most people think Hollywood when they think of the filming industry in Los Angeles.  But if you search for Culver City in Wikipedia, you would find that the motto for this little city is “the Heart of Screenland”.  Culver City is not only home to HOK Los Angeles, it also houses Sony Pictures Studios (former MGM Studios).

We recognize Flynn’s from Tron is actually Akasha in downtown Culver City and Target and Bed Bath and Beyond now lives on where the John Travolta was “Stranded at the Drive-In”.  But what we didn’t know was the little piece of film history that is right at HOK Annex….

The day finally came! LA raffled off the Prius!!!
 

Please join us in congratulating the winner of our LEED AP/Prius Challenge, BARBARA OSTROFF!!

In addition, we would like to make special mention of Lori Selcer and Albert Kaneshiro.  They have spent a considerable amount of their time organizing, tutoring and encouraging us to become LEED APs (93 in total) and to lead all HOK offices with 73%.

And, thanks to each of you who took us up on the Challenge and put in the extra time and effort to pass the exam.

So after cramming for a few weeks, I successfully passed the LEED exam yesterday morning.   What a great way to start my week! So now that is done, I can get back to some LA updates.  A few office pow wows have happened since my last post.

We had our 24th Annual Thankgiving Potluck on Wednesday, November 26.  Oh my goodness! there was SOOO much good food! And of course all the typical HOK LA Thanksgiving potluck foods were there: ham, turkey, cranberry sauce, jello shots (yes you read that correctly), and the mountains of desserts.  As usual, there was a bit of entertainment after everyone had finished their food.  Unfortunately, this year we weren’t treated to Jan Harmon’s various …

Some of you may know that Austin and I belong to the Andronicus Chapter of Alpha Rho Chi, a co-ed architecture fraternity for architecture and the allied arts. But most of you probably don’t know that we both lived in a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument that was built in 1896.

Located one block away from the historic West Adams district, this monument is a Foursquare Colonial Revival was designed by Sumner Hunt for Los Angeles Bar Association founder, James Horton Shankland.  His daughter, Elizabeth and her husband, Jefferson P. Chandler moved into this

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Drumroll please……

Honorable Mentions:

Jim Bruce - Dead Elvis

Yours Truly – Disco Lady

Albert Kaneshiro - Jack in the Box

4th: April Lenkey – Futuristic Woman

3rd: Jon Duey – Rainbow Gourmet Guy

2nd: Ed Diamante – Ronald McDonald

1st: Erika Casillas – Mexican Wrestler

top: Jascynda Jones, Steve Knudsen, Ed Diamante, Dave Hollister, Francesco Gallo, Somer Scott, Matt Stuart, Peter Rodriguez

middle: Emily Fowlkes, Edith Bailon, Suellen Asato, Silvija Olar, Mark Gordon, Cassandra Flood, Pearl Hung, April Lenkey, Daphne Robinson, Albert Kaneshiro, Steve Chang

bottom: Laura Diamante, Jon Duey, Erika Casillas, Cheyne Brown, Tarik D’introno

not in photo but still came in costume: Carl Johnson, Jim Bruce, Alondra Alvarez

It’s always amazing to see the creativity that Halloween brings out in all of us. This year we had about 30 people dressing up in the LA office. So we just decided to have an impromptu costume contest!  The winner will be announced at 3pm. Now the big question is… Who is your favorite?

Since everyone seems to be showing what each office did for their community, here’s LA’s. 

On August 15, 2008, all of HOK Los Angeles descended on LA Ballona Elementary to give the playground a facelift as our community service. Our effort included adding a new soccer field, a 30′x60′ world map in the inside of the track, various painting jobs, and adding various plants along the fence. We were all very tired afterwards, but it was definitely well worth it to see those children’s smiling faces. Here are some of our pictures!

Every October, HOK Los Angeles participates in the Annual IIDA Haunt Coutour. Haunt Coutour attracts various architecture firms each year to design, not buildings, but fashion!  This year’s theme is “From Roadway to Runway” and it was held at the Peterson Automotive Museum. Our team includes Poppy Abrego, Joanna Huang, Michelle Marotta, Melissa Mohr, Mike Goetz, Pam Juba and Clay Pendergast.

If you want to see the HOK team in action and some highlights from the event, check out the videos here. Our team did an AWESOME job!

Every year, I have this urge to dress up for Halloween. And every mid October, I start researching and seeing what I could make myself with very little money (then kick myself for not starting this earlier). But then I just procrastinate… in the end, I end up just rummaging through my closet the day before Halloween and throwing something together.

But this year, I stumbled across something really cool but definitely will not attempt. It is rather cheap but labor intensive so I won’t even bother. So enjoy!