HOK designers in New York, St. Louis and Atlanta are using virtual meetings with their University at Buffalo (UB) client team to improve the design process for UB’s new School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

The seven-story medical school will bring 2,000 UB faculty, staff and students daily to downtown Buffalo and, at more than 500,000 square feet, will be one of the largest buildings constructed in Buffalo in decades.

Three days after Hurricane Sandy barreled into the East Coast last October, HOK’s project team was scheduled to have a meeting …

Whether it’s waking up to a surprise spring snowstorm in Beijing or being served fried baby eel at lunch, what HOK’s Chris Fannin most enjoys about living in Asia is “responding to the unexpected on an almost hourly basis.”

Chris, who moved from St. Louis to Hong Kong in 2010, wears three hats for HOK. He is part of the management team leading the firm’s Asia Pacific practice, he leads the region’s planning practice and, with Suzette Goldstein, he is co-director of HOK’s global planning practice. As Chris moves between these three overlapping roles, he says each enriches the other. “We have …

What are the visions guiding some of the world’s most progressive organizations? We can see their aspirations take physical form in the 2013 HOK Design Annual, which illustrates our design processes and products for 42 remarkable clients over 340 pages.

From three flame-shaped towers in Baku to a high-tech lab in DC, a striking new broadcasting house for the BBC in London to a bio-inspired orphanage in Port-au-Prince, the projects in this book offer a glimpse into – and optimism for – our world’s future.

Read the 2013 HOK Design Annual on Issuu or download a PDF (45 MB).

If you’re in New York City on March 19, please join us at Inscape NYC for a Workplace Salon discussing the Yahoo! No-Work-From-Home Memo. HOK will help moderate the event and participate in a debate on both sides of the argument. We’ll be joined by folks from Gensler, Credit Suisse, BrightSpot Strategy and Perkins + Will.

Workplace Salon: The Yahoo! Debate
March 19, 2013 from 8:00-9:30 a.m.
Inscape NYC Showroom
414 W. 14th Street, 6th floor
RSVP by March 15, 2013
jfeuerborn@inscapesolutions.com

The audience will be polled on which side they most agree with before and then again after the debate. Let the …

When he was six years old, Todd Bertsch, AIA, moved with his family to Atlanta from Pocatello, Idaho. Through what he calls “serendipity,” Todd never left. He earned his architecture degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and has spent his entire professional career in Atlanta. In 2008, he joined HOK as design director in our Atlanta office.

Todd and his wife, also an architect, live with their 11-year-old daughter in a house they designed together near Piedmont Park in Atlanta’s vibrant Virginia Highland neighborhood.

“I have seen Atlanta undergo a tremendous transformation over the past 30 years,” says Todd. “It is still young compared to Paris or …

Bill Hellmuth, AIA, who joined HOK in 1991 and ascended to president in 2004, leads design projects worldwide. But he is especially proud of the local architectural contributions of HOK’s Washington practice, which is located in Georgetown’s historic Canal House. Under Bill’s leadership over the past two decades, the DC studio has designed more than 25 buildings across the city.

Why is contributing to Washington’s built environment so important to you?

BH: I am committed to cities. They are my focus. Washington is a high-energy city with great institutions and museums and terrifically interesting things to do. It’s a wonderful place to live.

I love being able to …

When you visit your doctor to talk about what is hurting or not right, you may find yourself describing sharp pains, headaches or numbness. If your doctor is doing her job, she will then ask you follow-up questions about these symptoms to get to the root of the problem.

You are probably painfully aware of some symptoms. Others are less obvious and take some probing and testing to figure out. Having studied for many years and seen many patients, your doctor should be able to give you a reasonably accurate diagnosis of what is ailing you.

That’s our job, but for space. At HOK, we listen to our clients and evaluate their complaints. …

I’m in Seoul, South Korea, with Korean gas company Samchully, helping to design their new headquarters building. This is my second trip to Korea, and each has been a pleasurable, humbling experience. In addition to having serious flashbacks from the movie Lost in Translation, it has been fascinating to be embedded in a business that is truly Asian.

With the ceremonial guard at Gyeongbokgung Palace in northern Seoul

The incredible cast of HOK people working on this project includes Ken Drucker (NY), Josh Schroeder (Hong Kong), James Mallory (NY), Phillip Luse (NY), Seung Lee (NY), Neil McClelland (NY) and Claire Whitehill (NY). I would be …

Like a proud father, Kenneth Drucker, FAIA, notes that two of his New York team’s projects that began more than half a decade ago have opened in recent months: Harlem Hospital’s new Mural Pavilion and a replacement hospital for the University Medical Center at Princeton.

While keeping an eye on all of the projects coming out of HOK’s New York studio, Ken is also designing a headquarters for Korean energy company Samchully in Seoul and the Singapore Chancery infill building in Manhattan. He recently began design of a new ambulatory care center for New York-Presbyterian Hospital on a prominent Upper East Side site. Finally, he just returned …

Thirty-four-year architectural veteran Russ Drinker, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, joined the leadership team in HOK’s San Francisco office on Sept 4. as a new senior vice president and management principal.

As a pre-teen growing up in a 150-year-old Victorian farmhouse surrounded by an apple orchard in Saratoga, California, Russ built tree houses and forts. By the time he began studying architecture at the University of California in Berkeley in 1976, he had graduated to designing and constructing 2,000-square-foot solar homes.

“I had no business doing this, but I designed and built a custom house while an undergraduate at Berkeley,” said Russ. “It taught me about designing buildings from the inside-out and about sustainability. And I …

Twenty-year architectural veteran Stan Chiu, AIA, LEED AP, an industry leader in lean design and integrated project delivery (IPD), joined HOK’s Los Angeles office on Sept. 4 as a new senior vice president and management principal.

After earning his B.A. from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., and a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 1992, Stan was awarded a fellowship to study in Japan, with a focus on comparing traditional and contemporary creative processes. He worked for a black-cape architecture firm in Tokyo and also as a carpenter on an island off Kobe, Japan.

“I have always been interested in the creative process,” said Stan. “Especially how a …

HOK’s Robin Ellerthorpe in his Grand Rapids, Mich., home office

Sue Shellenbarger’s recent Wall Street Journal piece on “‘Working from Home’ Without Slacking Off” reminded me of the question so many clients ask about the benefits and drawbacks of home working.

HOK gets drawn into the conversation because when our clients’ employees work at home full- or even part-time, they typically lose their assigned seat in the office. With more and more people working outside the office, large portions of office buildings can sit empty for long periods and there can be less of a reason to be there. Heck, with everyone away from the office, will there even be people to …

Designed by HOK and LBL, the Los Angeles County + USC Replacement Hospital is a 1.4-million-square-foot academic medical center in Los Angeles.

On June 28, the Supreme Court gave its blessing to the landmark Affordable Care Act (ACA). We asked a group of HOK Healthcare experts to share their thoughts on how this ruling will affect healthcare architecture and their opportunities to bring value to clients.

Chuck Siconolfi, AIA, ACHA, LEED AP BD+C, a senior principal and director of healthcare innovations, planning and design, based in HOK’s New York office:

“When we think of health care architecture, we are …

After winning a global design ideas competition, HOK has been selected to design the new medical school on the University at Buffalo‘s downtown campus.

Located at the center of the region’s emerging bio-sciences corridor, this new transit-oriented medical school development will anchor a lively, urban mixed-use district on campus and bring 1,200 students, faculty and staff downtown. To foster collaboration and interdisciplinary care, the new academic medical center will create connections that allow students, faculty, biomedical researchers and clinicians to move easily from classroom to bedside to lab.

“Building a new medical school is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our university and region, and a critical …

You’ve heard of the Sultan of Brunei? (Back when Bill Gates was a nobody, the Sultan was the richest man in the world.) In a sense, His Royal Highness was our client for a project to plan the entire city of Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city of Brunei, in Borneo. (You’ve heard of Borneo? One of the biggest islands in the world, full of dense rainforest, orangutans, world class diving, and Mount Kinabalu…)

Planning for an entire, 100-square kilometre city in the rainforest was, as you might expect, a great challenge. Besides the overt environmental aspects of design, we had to take into account concepts distinct to Brunei, like Melayu Islam Beraja:  the national philosphy promulgating …

Last night, HOK’s own Sheila Cahnman starred in a panel discussion at the National Building Museum. The panel, sponsored by the  Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, was convened to examine how the building industry is responding to the great recession and how it has and will change after the prolonged economic downturn.

Note: my photos are not very good – the only decent one of Sheila is where she is listening to Cathleen speak!  Sorry Sheila!!  You were beautiful and brilliant.

First, a bit about the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation: Beverly Willis herself is an architect by training (FAIA) and a founding Trustee of the National Bulding Museum (one of the most beautiful spaces in a city full of beautiful buildings …

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??

Yes, that’s right….several copies of the HOK monograph (as well as several HOK Asia books) located prominently …

  Thanks to the awesome folks over at ArchDaily, there are some more shots of the !melk/HOK/UrbanLab submission to the Navy Pier Competition.

We’ve mentioned it on here before, and shown you the video, but we also wanted to point out that the full public presentation video is up for your viewing pleasure!

Luigi Franceschina, AIA, knows retail. Over the past two decades, he has worked with some of the world’s most iconic brands, including Apple, Starbucks, Chanel, Gap, Banana Republic, Barney’s New York and Bank of America to develop their retail spaces.

Since joining HOK’s Chicago office in 2008, Luigi has worn many hats as a retail planner, designer, project manager and project architect.

Today, he’s bringing his retail expertise to the design of the 500,000-sq.-ft. Kavuklar mixed-use development in Izmir, Turkey; design of a new food court and retail environment at San Diego International Airport’s Terminal One; and a variety of projects for McDonald’s Corporation, including the complete interior renovation …

We’re just over 48 hours from kickoff, and if this picture from the NFL Super Bowl blog is any indication, Indianapolis is ready for Super Bowl XLVI:

As we discussed earlier in the week, the HOK-designed Indianapolis International Airport is getting rave reviews from some of the 40,000+ extra passengers flying through it this week. We’re thrilled to hear about how Indianapolis leaders are using the Super Bowl as an opportunity to transform the city, and we’re especially excited that the HOK-designed JW Marriott Indianapolis is the official media headquarters for Super Bowl XLVI.

Here’s what it looks like in the off-season:

…

The Navy Pier Pierscape Competition website has been updated to include the full videos and design booklets. 

The other submission books and videos are up as well, so check those out too!

You may have heard by now that for the past 8 weeks we’ve been busy over here at HOK preparing for the Pierscape at Navy Pier Design Competition. Joined by collaborating firms !melk  and UrbanLab, the design was finally presented to the public on Tuesday. 

The team included !melk., Urban Lab, Terry Guen Design Associates, Thirst, Zoe Ryan, Conservation Design Forum, HR&A Advisors, Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Sam Schwartz Engineering, Leni Schwendinger LIGHT projects, CMS Fountain Consultants, and Karin Bacon Enterprises.

We always see (and drool over) these competition entries, but very rarely do you get to peel back the covers and see what really goes into the preparation of these submissions, so we thought we’d give …

Excitement for Super Bowl XLVI is building, and the Indianapolis Airport Authority and Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee’s preparations are already paying off. The Authority is prepared to accommodate an additional air-traffic load of 40,000 people at Indianapolis International Airport this week, with 75 additional commercial flights and 60 additional charter flights. Among the visitors are thousands of sports media members who are descending on Indianapolis to cover the world’s biggest annual sporting event.

Yesterday, ESPN’s Colin Cowherd raved about the airport on his radio show.

“They have a new airport in Indianapolis,” said Cowherd. “If you are …

It’s survey time!  For those of you obsessed with surveys (like me), here’s your chance to offer some feedback. One of our favorite topics here at Life at HOK is social media – and we want to know how you use it.  This survey is geared toward designers and those in the design industry.  We’ll make the survey results available sometime in February.
Access the survey here. 
It will be open from today through next Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 5:30 pm Eastern.

Thanks for participating!

By Thomas Knittel, AIA, LEED® AP

The New Year always causes one to reflect on the recent past, but especially so today, the two-year anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti. I have been fortunate to work with a dedicated group of volunteers at HOK to design a children’s center and orphanage in Port-au-Prince. Earlier this week, we presented our latest design to the client, Fondation Enfant Jesus, as well as to the U.S. Green Building Council. The results were very positive.

Our collective goal to create a nurturing and restorative place is taking shape. In many ways, though, this project is more difficult than the large, …

An annual program recognizing young design and construction professionals from the Midwest Region has honored an individual from HOK’s Chicago office for two years in a row. Congratulations to Zach Borders, a 33 year old senior urban planner and Associate, for being honored with this designation.

See the Top 20 list here.

 As one of the youngest nominees on the list this year, Zach’s leadership at HOK and his individual accomplishments made him an easy choice for the Top 20. He has worked tirelessly to create great cities and greatness for cities. His determined spirit drove him to encourage his clients to take a more sustainable approach to community …

Last week, hundreds of attendees gathered at the Millenium Hotel in St. Louis for the 2011 YWCA Leaders of Distinction Leader Lunch celebration. The YWCA honored 11 phenomenal women who play important roles in corporate management, entrepreneurship, the arts, government, race relations and the future leadership. Included in this cast was HOK’s Mary Ann Lazarus.  As we (Marsha Littell, Valerie Greer, Sarah Weissman, David Chassin and I) sat there listening to the outstanding achievements of these women, we were all so proud to see our own Mary Ann on the stage. Take a few moments and watch the video as Mary Ann talks about her many passions. 
 


Michele …

HOK is designing Porsche Cars North America’s new headquarters in Atlanta. The project includes a contemporary workplace for up to 400 people, a Technical Service and Training Center, and a Customer and Driver Experience Center with an integrated road handling track. The team is targeting a Silver or higher LEED rating.

“Our design goal was to capture the essence of the Porsche brand and performance,” said Todd Bertsch, director of design at HOK in Atlanta. “We have designed a movement-filled building with the same high-energy feel and performance as Porsche automobiles.”

“Our vision for our new U.S. corporate home is to create a bold and energizing environment where the physical elements are as memorable …

I was inspired this weekend by a quote by Jacob Bronowski from his 1973 documentary series, The Ascent of Man:

“Discovery is a double relation of analysis and synthesis together. As an analysis, it probes for what is there. But then as a synthesis, it puts the parts together in a form in which the creative mind transcends the bare limits, the bare skeleton that nature provides.” – Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man: The Grain in the Stone

While preparing a presentation on the topic of BIM’s influence over the early design process, it occurred to me that BIM can be thought of to create a sort of resonance between analysis and …

My last post about IFMA World Workplace 2011 focused on HOK and my FM friends. This post shares some of what I learned (always a highlight of attending conferences for me). I was only in Phoenix for a day and a half, so I didn’t hit quite as many sessions as I would have liked, but I did get to see a couple of really good ones.

I’ve included links to each of the sessions where you can learn more about the presenters and download some additional information if you’re interested in learning more.

Dispelling the Myths of a Telecommuting and Flexible Workplace Program.  Great presentation by TIAA-CREF and DEGW sharing information on some …