Yes, that’s right, HOK is Kind of A Big Deal!  Why do I say this (other than the obvious fact that I am employed here and might have a vested interest in saying so?).  Well, some of you may know, I spent the last week visiting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with some of my favorite HOK people: Bill Hellmuth, Suzette Goldstein, and Colin Greene**.  While there, we thought we would swing by a bookstore to see if we could find any cool local architecture books.  Lo and behold, what did we find??

Photo by Muhammad Mustafa, Director of IBI Group and generally great guy

Yes, that’s right….several copies of the HOK monograph (as well as several HOK Asia books) located prominently at the end of a major aisle at eye level. So cool!  Yes, that is me wearing my lovely abeya (generously loaned by Anica Landreneau).

The trip was amazing – loved the client, our partners (from IBI Group), the project.  I’ll try to share more about the project, but for now a couple of photos will have to do:

So many cute camels wandering the site. And one dead one (not pictured).

Best camel-herder tent: includes solar panel, satellite dish, and white chevrolet (not pictured)

Getting ready for a helicopter tour of the site. Amazing. Sickening (as in airsickness). But awesome!

In world's smelliest cab found in Al Khobar. From L-R: Muhammad Mustafa,Colin Greene, Me, Suzette Goldstein. Not pictured Zain Ali (photographer).

*KOABD = Kind of a Big Deal

** I met Suzette and Colin way back in 2002, several years before I came to HOK.  I was working for a small planning/development firm and we were subbed to HOK for the H Street, NE redevelopment plan. Such an amazing project – it’s phenomenal to see some of the fruits of our labors coming to fruition now.  H Street is a completely different place than it was back then (at one of the public meetings someone came stumbling in after being mugged – now there are tons of activities keeping people of all backgrounds out and about and safe – the streetcar is even going in!). Anyway, I digress. During that project, I met Suzette and Colin, as well as a number of other HOK-ers, fell in love, and begged them to hire me.  They did and we have all lived happily ever after since then!