In her role as HOK recruiter, Nikki Duffner is always on the lookout for new design talent. She’s also attuned to noticing how design can improve people’s lives – sometimes in fresh and unexpected ways.

I think it’s safe to assume that design probably wasn’t top-of-mind when Nikki had to accompany her young son Max for a seven-day stay at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Yet that’s where they came face-to-face with a bright green alligator wagon. It wheeled past them and helped turn what could’ve been a stressful hospital experience into a playful one.  

She later discovered the wagon was the creation of a good friend of hers, Jack Heller. …

No, I’m not talking about the 1983 Grammy Award Winner for Best New Artist, I’m talking about Planning Group employees Matt Friesen, Josh Daniel, Todd Arnold, + Chris Fannin.

Based on Matt’s Facebook status update earlier this week: “the weather in Doha tomorrow: 104F H 80% humidity – heat index 125F”, I’m suddenly feeling a lot cooler in this 90 degree Atlanta weather.

And, I don’t know about you, but I hope they keep sending pictures like this until they return to the States.

Like a phoenix from the ashes, Building Design + Construction magazine has defied the odds and is re-emerging from its five-month publishing hiatus. A new, spiffed-up version of the magazine is scheduled to relaunch in September under new ownership:­ SGC Horizon, LLC (a division of Scranton Gillette Communications, publisher of Roads & Bridges and other titles).

We welcome back our publishing partners and eagerly anticipate new opportunities to do even more great things together!

What to expect from the new BD+C.

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 …

I have a confession…I moonlight…

Yes, it’s true, I have another passion outside architecture and design. I advise on urban policy to political parties in the UK. This is a rather un-architect thing to do, or so I’m reliably informed, but I’ve always fervently believed that if you want to improve things and have a say on issues that directly affect you, then the only way to make a difference is to be involved and make your voice heard. To steal a phrase from our current government, I call it “Professional Localism”.

About two months ago, whilst we were in the throes of poltical wrangling amidst post general election uncertainty, I was asked by the New London Architecture to write for their quarterly publication on my …

Summer is a fun time here in HOK San Francisco, what with the farmer’s markets, the street festivals, the kooky (read: foggy) weather, and most importantly, the summer interns! 2010 was a high-yield year for the internship program: We received 876 applications from across the globe, from both Graduate and Undergraduate degree candidates, from which five were selected. Who were the chosen few, you ask? This year’s interns are an engaging and diverse bunch, and since we consider our interns to be an essential part of “Life at HOK”, I bring you 5 for 5 2010: five questions for five interns!

1. Carrie N./ Urban Planning-Landscape Architecture/ Harvard University/ Graduate Student

   What is your background

…

It was a hot day in St. Louis and I’m not just talking about the weather! Today we had our first community work day for the Dewey School Learning Garden, a project near and dear to my heart.  About a year ago, the kids started back to school on a hot August day, much like today and I noticed that the playground (a sea of asphalt) wasn’t helping the situation.  I started paying attention to the fact that in some places, plants were starting to crop up in broken spots and on rainy days, the bottom corner of the playground became what is affectionately known as “Dewey Falls.”  Working in the Planning Group as I do, I …

We’ve talked before about HOK’s aviation group (Indianapolis Airport, New Doha International Airport, National Air & Space Museum), so when I saw this article on crazy airports, I had to share: Enjoy Your Fright: The World’s 10 Scariest Airports.  The article shares fantastic photos and descriptions of each of the “ten scariest airports.”  I’ve included some of my favorites from the article below.

Most of my flights are to pretty major airports, most of which are not so scary; however, there are definitely days flying to Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) that I’m concerned we might land in the Potomac River, or when I’m riding my bike past, that a plane might land on my head. …

Recently, I was shopping at one of my favorite stores, Whole Foods (insert shameless hope that this plug gets me some free stuff), a place I consistently have an awesome customer experience.

I was standing at the meat and poultry counter with the same butcher (we’ll call him “Joe”) who helps me every Saturday. I didn’t have a specific plan; I just knew that I wanted to serve something new and interesting for dinner.  Joe must have picked up on my furrowed brow, because in addition to his usual “How can I help you?” he asked if there was something in particular I’d like to know more about, was …

Nothing symbolizes professional success quite like the creation of a bobblehead likeness.

Obama’s got one. The Beatles have a set. LeBron even inspired one as a Cavalier and another to chart his migration to Miami.

It was only a matter of time before our own Chairman and resident “less-is-more” pioneer – Bill Valentine – inspired a similar tribute.

Bill’s bobble is actually a new award to recognize exceptional examples of sustainability in action. It will show up at HOK offices worldwide, honoring individuals and teams for tangibly advancing the HOK Sustainable Roadmap. Introduced in early 2010, the roadmap is a framework to take sustainability …

On Thursday, June 24th, HOK St. Louis kicked off our 2010 St. Louis Arts and Education Council Campaign which runs until Friday, July 2nd. Founded in 1963, the Arts and Education Council has raised $95 million that has been distributed to local arts organizations who provide music, dance, theatre, visual arts, literary arts, film, art education and community outreach programs. They are the only privately-funded arts umbrella organization whose geographic reach benefits the 16-county, bi-state area of St. Louis.

Last year’s event (http://hoklife.com/2009/07/20/makeup-anyone/) was a theatrical makeover. This year was Dancing With the HOK Stars! We …

HOK-Weidt Group team members who designed an affordable 163,000-sq.-ft. zero emissions office building used HOK’s Advanced Collaboration Rooms to celebrate their success with a virtual toast.

“I’m a big believer in marking passages,” said HOK Sustainable Design Director Mary Ann Lazarus, who led the nearly yearlong charrette. “We set out to discover the barriers and opportunities for market-rate carbon neutral design. And we did it!”

Tim Gaidis and Mary Ann in St. Louis:

Colin Rohlfing and Jeff Sanner in Chicago:

Gerry Faubert in Toronto:

Bill Valentine …

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 …

Recently, Jaki, Michelle and their fellow cohorts of the HOK St. Louis Diversity Task Force unveiled a scheme to get us on our feet and out of our comfort zones. An ingenious mashup of The Amazing Race, Survivor, The Game of Life and Lego, The Amazing HOKLife encouraged everyone to mix, mingle and learn about the diversity of our practice neighborhoods.

Here’s a video postcard from the event to give you a taste of Life at HOK in St. Louis:

The St. Louis Diversity Task Force concocted an exciting office-wide event blending elements from four popular games: The Amazing Race, Survivor, Lego and The Game of Life.

Designed to lower the barriers that separate practice neighborhoods, The Amazing HOKLife encouraged people to collaborate with members of other groups while promoting a deeper cohesiveness among the people and teams that form the HOK St. Louis community.

Armed with maps and instructions, 20 teams visited “neighborhoods” and gathered as many Lego pieces as possible to build the most creative structure to enter in a prestigious design competition (juried by HOK practice leaders, who are still deliberating…)

Congrats to our …

I’m always interested to find out what HOKers do in their spare time when they’re not in the office. There’s always a great travel story or a profile of an individual and their volunteer work, and it’s great to find out what makes everyone tick in the HOK community. As I’ve been quite busy in my time away from the office lately, I wanted to share a little of what I’ve been up to when I’m not helping out our sustainable design practice in San Francisco.

Always been fascinated with images that capture a moment. When you see something that catches your eye, you may not even understand why, …

I invited Dr. Cindy Frewen Wuellner, FAIA, an accomplished architect, educator, researcher and blogger, to share some insights on the value and potential of online communities like ours. Prepare to be inspired, challenged and enriched…

How do you build your professional reputation? There’s an old way and a new way.

In the old way, you work for a star firm, build expertise, cultivate relationships, get recognition, awards, advancement, grab a couple of friends, and bolt for the door. Voila, the birth of a next-generation firm where you can spread your wings, design, lead, and develop your expertise.

The cost to the mother ship is enormous. They lose their best people. Project knowledge vanishes, …

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.

http://www.vimeo.com/11993807
I am so excited to share this video fresh from our latest and greatest PechaKucha Night in STL a few weeks ago.  HOK’s very own Tim Gaidis was one of the biggest highlights of the night with his 20 x 20 presentation revealing the big paradigm shift in his life as a designer.  As you might imagine from the title, this had a lot to do with our alliance with the Biomimicry Guild. 

We had 12 other wonderful presentations at PK Night, some of which you can find here.  In addition to some great photography here, we also had the wonderful surprise of a sketch artist in our midst who captured another lively presentation and posted on his blog, here.  …

As Blake reminded us, May is bike to work month.  Hopefully you’ve all pulled out your cycles and gotten moving – HOK certainly has!  Based on our success last year, we’ve again joined the Cascade Bicycle Club Community Health Challenge.

With 10 teams and 78 riders at the time of this post, we’ve logged over 2,800 miles, putting us in the top 20 companies participating (again)….and if some of our regular riders remember to log their miles, we’ll be even higher!

Anyway, the point of this post is not to brag about how awesome HOK is (or specifically about the WDC teams) – it’s to reach out to you to see …

The third TEDx in Atlanta is coming soon and I’ve got some heavy s%#@ to knock out in some posts before then so I’m going to cut right to it this week.

At the last TEDx Atlanta, titled Re:Purpose, there was much-ado about the interpretations of what repurposing really means. Some of it very literal and some not-so-literal. Matthias’ talk above is the latter.

You may have heard of a little thing called Architizer. it’s a social media site for architects and designers and it’s the brainchild of Matthias and Marc Kushner. That’s the most famous bit of their work right now, but the not so famous but arguably most interesting is their project work at the collaborative studio …

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

…

Thursday morning, I accompanied the fearless Donald Tate to the historic Lemp Brewery for a good old-fashioned stroll through the annals of HOK.

My mission was to survey the voluminous marketing materials that have accumulated over the decades, with the goal of consolidating them a bit.

And because it was my inaugural visit to the iconic Lemp complex, Donald graciously led me on a tour of the 1800s building, which is constructed upon a maze of natural limestone caves once used for the lagering of beer by early German brewers.

On our way back to the office, we visited another St. Louis icon – Gus’ Pretzels – for some nourishment worthy of an archivist.

So one of the perks of working at HOK is that we get to see all kinds of cool spaces. Frequently we’re touring for the purposes of our own project (for example, when we went on a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing as part of a pre-bid meeting); sometimes we get to tour completed HOK facilities.

This week, Walter Urbanek and Frank Etro of the DC office organized a fantastic field trip to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (NASM) – Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport.  HOK is currently doing construction administration on the second …

Sent to me by our BIM manager, technology guru, sustainable enthusiast, former industrial designer, enlightened thinker and jack of all trades… Dave Ivey. Thanks for a funny start to Monday Dave.

Is it possible to design a market-rate, zero carbon emissions office building in St. Louis? A dedicated team led by HOK and our friends at The Weidt Group decided to find out. The exciting news is that though a variety of conditions — from the climate to the cheap electricity — made St. Louis a challenging location, the answer is YES! And the design process will transfer to most North American cities. 

We’ll share details about the design and process …

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 …

We received some very sad news today. Building Design + Construction (BD+C) and Consulting-Specifying Engineer (C-SE) – tireless supporters of the AEC professions – are ceasing publication. They are two unfortunate casualties in a media massacre that’s claiming the lives of 23 industry magazines published by Reed Business Information. Other titles meeting their maker include Professional Builder, HOTELS, Tradeshow Week, Plant Engineering and Graphic Arts Monthly.

We owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to Gordon, Rob, Dave, Barbara, Jay, Jeff, Larry, Meg, Scott, Jim, Chuck and the other talented folks we’ve had the pleasure of working with throughout the years. Thanks for all …

I met Abbey on my first day at HOK.  She sat across the [low] wall from me and…had just a few months earlier swiped the job I’d been coveting for about a year!  Turns out, Abbey was a much better candidate for that particular position  and I ended up in a position that was perfect for me.  Gold star to HOK!  Anyway, you should know that Abbey’s a superstar urban planner for the HOK Planning Group.  Not too long ago, she and her hubby abandoned DC for her home state of Texas    A  fantastic mom to her newborn baby (and also her not-so-newborn kitty), and all around great person, Abbey is a  fabulous,  funny, brilliant colleague – the DC crew misses her tremendously …