Congratulations to the St. Louis Science Center, which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the James S. McDonnell Planetarium today! This hyperboloid structure, designed by HOK Founding Partner Gyo Obata, opened on April 16, 1963, in Forest Park.
“The strength comes from the shape,” HOK architect Roger McFarland said in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article. “Think of an egg; it’s tiny but strong. It’s a beautifully simple concept. But once you start looking at the construction photographs, you realize how difficult it is to build something so simple.”
In 1966, architecture students from Washington University in St. Louis unknowingly …
All of this talk about Yahoo, mobility, flexibility in the workplace, and the list goes one, has sparked some interesting dialogue. There are those that see working from home as beneficial not only to an employee’s well-being and job satisfaction, but also to productivity, reduction of churn, greater efficiency, and slimmer real estate costs. However, there are also those that see a lack of innovation, difficulty managing and measuring productivity, and missed opportunities for serendipitous encounters and communication. Accenture’s Survey Results for IWD2013
But we have tasted the freedom that technology offers (as well as the tethering – who checks email before even getting out of bed …
Not only have I been seeing this NYT article (Relax! You’ll Be More Productive) circulating around Facebook lately, but a coworker also just emailed it to our whole group. It seems that many people are yearning for both increased productivity and relaxation – and this article by Tony Schwartz just may be the golden ticket to helping us achieve that magical balance!
It seems a bit counterintuitive at first. Schwartz states that they key to achieving greater productivity is not found through getting swept up in a whirlwind of working/going/doing longer and faster, rather, it is found in quite the opposite state: that of relaxation and rejuvenation.
What do a 5.5 million-square-foot research university in Saudi Arabia and a 6,000-square-foot orphanage in Haiti have in common? Inspired by sustainable architecture on two vastly different scales, their bond will soon help hundreds of children begin their journeys home.
T’was a warm winter day in Houston when the 4th Annual Gingerbread Build-Off took place in Hermann Square. HOK’s team built a holiday version of James Turrell’s Skyspace that was made of green cake covered in parsley, white chocolate, ginger bread, and various candies.
Thanks to our builders and strategists:
Builders:
Jasmine Brown, Deinte Dan-Princewill, Alex Lara and Leming Yang.
Candy Strategists: Lauren Flemister, Ashley Craig and Sara Bullington
…and those who came to support and vote!
Follow the link below to explore more on the built pavilion:
HOK has been ranked as the #1 BIM Architecture firm by Building Design + Construction, but what does it take to achieve such wide adoption of new processes and technology? Change management is a paramount concern when a large, multinational firm undergoes such a radical transformation. Back in 2009, our firm decided to officially retire the term “CAD” and proclaimed November 5 as HOK’s BIM Day. For historical reference, Guy Fawkes Day was key to selecting this date.
On the fourth anniversary of our BIM Day, we are embarking on another leg of our journey to buildingSMART. As BIM has become synonymous with a specific software tool (like Revit), we recognize the need to expand …
In this guest post, HOK Director of Sustainable Design Mary Ann Lazarus responds to a recent USA Today report by providing her take on the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Green Building Rating Systems.
USA Today just published a pair of articles about green building that are critical of the USGBC and the LEED rating system.
As early adopters of LEED, we are big supporters of this rating system. Since the late 1990s, we have watched it trigger a remarkable transformation toward designing and building more environmentally responsible buildings. This includes contributing to a broad public awareness about the importance of sustainable design.
LEED has sparked the development of completely new …
Greenbuild 2012, the world’s largest green building conference, is coming to San Francisco Nov. 14-16.
This year’s social media focus brings together technology and sustainability to advance the green movement. You can follow HOK’s activities on Twitter at @HOKNetwork. Be sure to also check out Greenbuild’s official Twitter feed – @Greenbuild – and conversation at #Greenbuild.
HOK’s sustainable design experts will be busy at Greenbuild, speaking at the conference and other related events. Read more below and visit the Greenbuild website to learn more about the conference and expo.
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 …
Senior specifications writer Terry Mattison is celebrating 50 years at HOK – and counting.
Members of the St. Louis office gathered on August 30 to celebrate with Terry, whose 11-page resume includes a staggering 341 HOK projects. That number likely would double if it included the projects he has unofficially touched by providing advice on building materials. Terry, who still arrives at the office by 3:00 a.m. on most days, joins an elite group. HOK’s other two half-century employees are Co-Founder Gyo Obata and Chairman Emeritus Bill Valentine, who retired last spring.
Vice Chairman Clark Davis kicks off the festivities
“HOK is a firm often cited for making a difference. … HOK is recognized for breaking new ground with clear, practical and inspirational leadership. HOK staff is admired for its compelling case studies, engaging thought leadership, and insights that lead to making wise decisions to benefit the planet’s future condition.” James Cramer Co-Chair, Design Futures Council Founding Editor, DesignIntelligence
We owe much of our leadership status to our clients. It is our clients who bring their vision …
HOK is honored to be the architectural design team for the long awaited, state-of-the-art planetarium, science museum and technology center in Austin’s Museum District. Together with Austin Planetarium, a grassroots nonprofit with the goal of building a world-class science and technology museum in Central Texas, and KUD International, a private sector development firm. Executive Director, Torvald Hessel says, “The need, for a science and technology museum, specifically in Central Texas, has been recognized for thirty years.”
This public-private partnership will create a mixed-use development, which includes a residential tower, retail and restaurant facilities, more than a thousand underground parking spaces, and the science and technology museum, home to the largest planetarium in Texas. The Austin Planetarium will enhance Austin’s Museum District, which is …
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 …
San Francisco has long been one of the world’s great tourist attractions, and this year it will have a great new set of offerings: 20+ tours developed for the Greenbuild Conference and Expo, plus many more that the USGBC Northern California Chapter will be able to offer in the future. The Greenbuild Host Committee recently put out a call for tour proposals – the outpouring of responses showed the embarrassment of riches that San Francisco has to offer for green building …
I was curiously Google-image searching the term “female architect” one afternoon and the results were stereotypical as expected; hard hats inside finished buildings, abundant rolls of paper, every face with a huge smile and the occasional Zaha head shot (go girl!). Another observation was that every female is young and attractive; this made me wonder where that portrayal was conceived?
Soon after, I came across an article in February’s “Architect” magazine (p.29) stating that “Only about 3% of executives in major American corporations – including architecture firms- are women (according to McKinsey & Co.).”
I wasn’t so shocked; it’s a man’s world we’re infiltrating, and only for the last few generations. However, the …
HOK is pleased to announce the release Problem Seeking: An Architectural Programming Primer, 5th Edition (Wiley).The book, first published in 1969, has become the industry’s standard resource on the process of programming, both for architects and clients. The new edition, authored by William M. Peña and HOK’s Steven A. Parshall, features exciting and practice-tested approaches to the programming process today, with new strategies for effective group action, and new settings in which to explore programming concepts.
It is supplemented with more than 175 helpful illustrations and diagrams and provides updated technical information and faster, easier access to explanations, examples, and tools.
The first edition of Problem Seeking was based on …
Thanks to Lauren Gibbs and Dale Pozzi of HOK’s Strategic Accounts + Consulting group for passing this our way:
Fraser Milner Casgrain, Vancouver
A recent article published in the Great Features: Ideas in Innovations section of the Toronto Star featured how new ways of working, along with changes in working environments, have promoted collaborative, effective team environments for many organizations. Several companies that have recently redesigned their work spaces are featured in the article, including those designed by HOK.
Lisa Fulford-Roy, HOK’s vice president of client strategy, stated that many companies are looking to implement agile workplace standards to reduce costs and space while also improving flexibility for …
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!
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.
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 …
Thanks to Dale Pozzi from our New York office for passing along this guest post about London workplace strategist Paul Wheeler‘s recent appearance on BBC Radio:
The open workplan format is facing no small amount of scrutiny lately as a creativity killer. Among the most recent sources of controversy is the publication of new book, “QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,” whose author, Susan Cain, posits that the open workplan may be stifling creativity.
Fortunately, advocates have Paul Wheeler to defend the cause (or at least to define it properly).
On Monday morning, BBC Radio’s Vanessa Feltz dedicated a portion of her program to an interview with Susan …
2011 has been a great year for HOK’s competitive spirit – what with amajor competition win in the Metropolis Net Zero competition followed by our latest award:
HOK’s Entry Board for the Architecture at Zero Competition (Click to enlarge)
The project brief was to create a mixed-use building or set of buildings that includes housing, retail space and a new library branch on an industrial urban infill site in Emeryville, California. More importantly, the crux of the competition was the mandate that the …
Yann Weymouth has collaborated with colleagues in HOK’s Toronto office on the design of 77 Charles West, Aspen Ridge Home’s high-end condominium development near the University of Toronto. Check out this UrbanToronto photo essay of the construction going in the 16-story tower. From the story:
“The building has garnered much attention on UrbanToronto for its high quality curtain wall glazing. Green glass, usually a result of high iron oxide content, is not normally appreciated around here, but the deliberate colouration of the glass and related spandrel strips here has received nothing but rave reviews: this is green done right.” …
Today and tomorrow, the design world is converging upon the Baltimore Convention Center to share thoughts, best practices, cool products, and swag at NeoCon East!
This year, I had the great priviledge of presenting with my friend and colleague, the fabulous Claire Whitehill. Our presentation was focused on workplace benchmarks and best practices, and shared a few case studies of things that were working well. We had a great audience who were happy to participate and offered some great comments and asked some of the tough questions. Let me know if you’re interested in the presentation – we’d be happy to share!
U.S. Southcom Headquarters is one of the U.S. military’s ten Major Combatant Commands. It includes a four-story, 440,000-square-foot headquarters building with offices, command suite, computer data center, conference and training rooms and the command center. Additional buildings include the 40,000-square-foot Conference Center of the Americas and the 150,000-square-foot Services building for support functions, child development center, health and medical center, fitness center, warehouse facilities, loading docks and central utility plant.
US Southern Command Headquarters also received an Eagle Award from the Associated Building and Contractors Central Florida group on Saturday evening.
HOK’s Chris Fannin (director, Asia Pacific) and Yan Wang (director, Beijing)
Here’s a great update from Shenyang, China, via Jason Chan, HOK senior landscape architect in Hong Kong:
September 21, 2011 marked the 30th anniversary of the “International Day of Peace,” which was established by the United Nations in 1982. This day also marked the grand opening of the 4.5-hectare World Peace Park in Shenyang, China. World Peace Park also became the venue for the opening ceremony of the Northeast Asia Economic Forum (NEAEF), an annual event attended by political leaders from China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, North Korea and Russia. HOK was honored to participate in the event as designer …
HOK is the USGBC’s official design partner for Project Haiti, a pro bono effort to build a LEED-certified orphanage and children’s center in Port au Prince. Sustainable Design Director Mary Ann Lazarus and a team from HOK recently returned from Toronto, where they shared the Project Haiti story at Greenbuild 2011. Read on for Mary Ann’s guest post and an amazing video from the USGBC:
“Imagine it: 15,000 people in the Air Canada Hockey arena, lights flashing, music playing, Jumbotrons running. Cue USGBC CEO Rick Fedrizzi for the introduction of the new Project Haiti video. The video features the recent site visit by the USGBC and HOK team members and meeting with the terrific clients, Gina and Lucien Duncan from the children’s center.
