Last week Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino from Tinker London gave a lunch lecture at HOK London about digital data and the city.

I had met Alexandra at liftconference this spring, where she was giving a short talk on her firm’s work (here a link to her talk). And immediately I thought: that’s a great topic for a lunch talk at HOK.

We provided Alex with a good audience – in spite of the sunny weather outside the boardroom was packed with people.

Tinker London

Alex is the founder of Tinker London, a digital and interactive design firm. She specializes in an area called “the internet of things” – a way of linking objects to the internet and get usable data out of them. …

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 …

It is customary in the London office to bring in some sweet treats when it’s your birthday. Last month it was my birthday so I thought I’d raid the store cupboard and try the ‘homemade’ approach instead of going to the supermarket.

I’ve now had so many requests for more homemade goodies that I have made this a monthly tradition. So in February there were HOK-themed cupcakes…

… and this month I went for lemon traybakes (see recipe below). I love to bake but usually end up stuffing my face, so it’s really nice to be able to share the calories with others

It is such a simple idea and yet it gets brilliant results: it boosts staff moral as well …

HOK London’s new(ish) office at The Qube played host to our 2nd ever pub quiz night last Friday. I’m not sure if you have Quiz Nights in the US, I’m sure you do, but basically what happens over here is usually a local pub has a Quiz Night where customers form teams and play in competition to answer general knowledge questions. These nights can get very competitive, especially if the prize is alcohol, and we found, especially if other teams are colleagues!

So on Friday our ‘Quizmasters’ were schools-designer supremo Stefan Jakobek, justice building king Femi Oresanya and my wonderful Advance Strategies colleague Anna Sigler. These three designed some rather challenging questions for …

It is my complete pleasure and honor to bring you the next installment of Women Across HOK, Sherin Aminossehe.  This senior planner in our London office is a creative light shining bright all over the world.  In addition to being sharp as a tack and having an incredible ability to juggle complex projects, Sherin can chat it up on virtually any subject in her very personal and disarming way…making friends everywhere she goes.  She is an avid reader, artist and takes fabulous vacations as you can see in pics below.

I first met Sherin about four years ago.  Since then, she has been my go-to person for information on projects, people, you name it. She always delivers and despite time zones and …

Yesterday there was a sudden burst of excitement in HOK’s London office. I was quietly tapping away at my keyboard when suddenly there was a stampede of men and women to the window facing Tottenham Court Road. For some time I stayed sitting at my desk, trying to resist the sheep-like urge to do what everyone else was a press my nose up against the glass (see below….)

But eventually I could stand it no longer. And guess what? I was rewarded! Naked men outside! It turned out that a new clothing retailer had opened downstairs (called Joy) and the first people to turn up there without …

It is thought that golf first started on our fair isle – apparently the earliest known reference to golf dates to 1457, when King James II of Scotland banned golf and football, on the grounds that they where keeping his subjects from their archery practice. The ban was repeated in 1471 by James III and in 1491 by James IV for the same reason…

Luckily for us, golf is no longer banned in the UK.  If fact British golf has seen a significant increase in new players in the past two years, according to figures from Sport England to the tune of over 59,000 new players.

Some of those may include the 15 HOKers who took part in the first HOK Golf …

This is an update of a post I did way back in April on a new diagonal Japanese style pedestrian crossing at Oxford Circus.  This area is held close to the hearts of HOK Londoners as we were resident in the the floor above Topshop, just above Oxford Circus tube state, for a wonderful ten years (my bank balance is now thanking me that we have moved, as I did have a good daily routine of taking the ’short cut’ through Topshop to ‘browse’ on my way home…).

So back to the topic – the pedestrian crossing. This may seem a topic …

Open House is a UK charily set up influence the future shape of London by “highlighting and promoting architectural excellence”, “enabling everyone to build their understanding of architecture and of the impact it has on broader social issues – and to challenge them to think differently”, “support people in articulating and expressing their needs and aspirations for the quality of the spaces and places they use every day” and “involve Londoners of all ages and abilities in the development of strategies for a better built environment”.

What an amazing charity you are probably thinking, and so am I! We need these not just for london but also for other, more regional cities and towns where perhaps planning considerations may be under less public scruitny. …

Last week, the Qatari Royal Family withdrew a planning application for Chelsea Barracks in London. Once a occupied by two battalions of troops, the Qataris had planned to build a Richard Rogers-designed development of 552 new homes.

However, the Qataris changed their mind, when it was claimed, Prince Charles intervened due to his opposition to Rogers’ designs. Prince Charles wrote to Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, the Qatari prime minister complaining that Rogers’ designs were “unsuitable” for a site so close to Sir Christopher Wren’s Royal Hospital. This was despite previous support for the designs by CABE (the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment).

So the question is, should the monarchy of a country have a right to intervene in such situations?

Rogers …

HOK London has just stated work on Soho Lodge, a charming Tudor-style, Grade II listed summerhouse located in the heart of Soho Square.  The unique Lodge – there is no other in London – is suffering from wear and tear and old age and we are giving it a bit of a facelift!

The landmark dates back to 1875 and was originally built at the expense of the residents of Soho Square.  HOKLondon is leading the renovation through its specialist conservation team.  The architects have crafted designs that carefully renovate the old timbers, removing the decay that will help prevent the lodge from further sinking and twisting.  Evidence suggests

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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 …

Granted, I am a couple of weeks late in posting this, but it’s official: HOK London’s design studio has a new home! We are now residing in the signature Qube building at the north end of Tottenham Court Road (see image below).  As well as being aesthetically beautiful, Qube has achieved the highest building and environmental standards, achieving a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM rating (the UK’s equivalent to LEED).

James Berry, HOK London, Director of Management & Operations, commented on our move:

“HOK understand that the built environment has a profound affect on people’s lives. We chose Qube for its fantastic central location and the high quality of the building’s architecture and interiors. As a signature …

HOK London design director Larry Malcic believes that “a really fine building will write itself.”

Previous edition: Nicola Greenaway

We all know that London is a shopper’s paradise (especially at the moment if have the luxury having your cash in any other currency than pound sterling), but for one week every year we also play host to London Fashion Week. During LFW a slight frenzy descends on our little town… lots of leggy models wearing cooky ‘off-duty’ clothes and so much coverage in the press you’d think the rest of the world had come to a stand still for a week.

Please don’t think I begrudge this however, for those who know me I am a self confessed ‘clothes horse’ myself, so in this week I am in my element. I just have to …

Kings Place. Source: www.building.co.uk

Over the last three years, HOK London Advance Strategies have been helping Guardian News & Media to prepare to move 1,500 staff from six buildings in Farringdon into their new 140,000 sqft King’s Cross HQ – Kings Place. The first newspaper published from GNM’s new HQ was on Monday 15 December – click here to see it.

We helped GNM to devise a workplace strategy designed to provide an alternative working environment. The idea was to create spaces that would encourage flexible and collaborative working, an ambition often hampered in the past by having

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I have been meaning to share this photo with you guys for weeks now, sorry for the tardiness. But that Christmas is approaching fast it is even more appropriate! This year Carnaby Street in London (which is opposite the HOK London office) have surpassed themselves with their Christmas decorations – I absolutely love them and have spent many a few minutes standing in the street marvelling at them! It’s not often you get tasteful and funky Christmas decorations.

For those of you who are not UK-based you may have heard of Carnaby Street has it was was popular hippies and Mods in the 1960s. During that period many independent fashion …

Here’s a glimpse of what you can get up to on a Friday night in London – a party in the Tate Gallery!

A rather bizarre juxtaposition of fine art and disco beats… I’m sure the base beat can’t be good for the canvases!

See video below…

A few weeks ago HOK London announced our move in Spring 09 from our current location on Oxford Street to the more sedate locale of Fitzrovia.

Our new office is going to be in the Qube building, just 10 mins walk away from our current location. We are all going to be very sad to leave our Oxford Street home (although I think my bank balance will be happy that I will have a longer walk to the clothes shops!), but we are incredibly excited to be moving to a new and completely different space. Change in location is always good for a design firm, it will bring with it new inspirations and mix up those creative juices.

Tomorrow we’re …

As well as being Halloween, at the HOK London office it is Wear it Pink Day. Wear it Pink Day is part of the UK Breast Cancer Campaign  – every year it asks everyone to wear an item of pink on Friday 31 October and donate £2 each to the charity.
As you can see by some of the inspired outfits my fabulous colleagues have come up with this year, HOK London embraces this challenge wholeheartedly!

HOK London’s poetic and professorial design director on designing the future:

Previous edition.

So today I attended a conference on workplace sustainability. One of the speakers was Roger Bootle, CEO of Capital Economics, journalist, author and advisor to the UK government Treasury Committee. Basically a big-hitter.

I wanted to share with you a few interesting points he made:

• UK Business can save roughly 2% of GDP through well managed property
• Over the last couple of years there has been a disinvestment in commercial owner-occupation and a switch to leasehold. This has released capital, saving roughly 1% in UK GDP so far.
• There is still roughly 1% of GDP that can be saved. This equates to rough £14 Billion (over $24 Billion)!!
• The major transitions from owner-occupation to leasing has already occured. The further savings can be

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I wish I lived in St Louis… lovely weather and cheap houses.