Another successful HOK Structure’s Pi day has come and nearly gone as I write this.  As always it was an enjoyable event for all; we brought pie, we ate pie, we recited pi.    This was the St. Louis Structural Engineering group’s sixth annual event to celebrate the mathematical constant pi, an irrational and transcendental number represented by the Greek letter “π”.

To celebrate, we hosted an event inviting colleagues in our office to bring in a pie and participate in a “Best In Show” pie contest (and of course to eat pie) in addition to hosting the “most recited digits of pi” contest.  Winners were awarded with $30 gift cards to Pi Pizzeria!

Without further ado (because most of you want to skip the math lecture and find out who won the contests)…

Best In Show Pie: Michael Vande Velde’s Homemade Cherry Pie (see below)

Most Recited Digits of Pi: Nag Nagulapati with 51 digits including the first 3

An additional thanks goes to Cheryl Steffe, Michael Vande Velde, Justin Thomas, Paul Wilhelms, Mike Hyland, Steven Crang, Kirsten Marklin, and Nag Nagulapati.

Pi Day of Years Past:

Happy Belated Pi Day – 2012
Fourth Annual Pi Day - 2011
3.15 Pi Day Round Up - 2010
Happy Pi(e) Day – 2009
First Annual Structure’s Pi Day was in 2008 and went quietly into the night.

L-R F: Heather Neri, Stephanie Spann, Abdel Ferhi, Jim Hoffmann; B: Andrew Gayer, Sal Gimbert, Michael Vande Velde, Steven Crang

]]> http://www.hoklife.com/2012/12/19/happy-holidays/feed/ 0 http://www.hoklife.com/2012/12/13/gingerbread-build-off/ http://www.hoklife.com/2012/12/13/gingerbread-build-off/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 23:43:25 +0000 nico.stearley http://www.hoklife.com/?p=29137 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:

http://www.architectmagazine.com/lighting/a-skyspace-in-houston.aspx

A Skyspace in Houston – Lighting – Architect Magazine Page 1 of 3

James Turrell’s latest project is an architectural pavilion that frames an artwork—and an artwork that accomplishes an architectural feat.

The quilt, a scheme brought to life by Penny Malina, represents the “joining of small pieces of fabric as a whole allowing us to see how each individual square is integral to the completed quilt”.  The drive for squares began in July.  The Interiors group donated old (discontinued) fabric samples, new muslin squares were cut, and notions were provided.  It’s been wonderful to see the variety of squares that have been pinned on the wall, each giving some insight into the maker! 

The drive continues through November to have all squares collected by the first week of December (part of the Don’t Be A Square campaign).  It will be amazing to see the completed quilt (some of this has already begun, see below), to see the individuals that make up a whole.  If you are in the St. Louis office and have not provided a square, I encourage you to do so!  This quilt represents the diversity of the St. Louis office, and you should be represented.

Be sure to check back in to see more about the quilt!

Just For FUN section:

Just for fun, I queried friends on Facebook and Twitter to ask the question, “When you hear the word “quilt” what is the first thing you think?”  Some of the responses were:

“What the heck is my wife doing now!!!”
“Grandmas”
“Symmetrical patterns”
“Comfort and joy”
“A lot of hard work”
“Grade school, learning what words start with Q”
“Something that I need to finish…”
“Nap”
“Old” (as in heirloom)

So, what do you think when you hear the word “quilt”?

Interested in seeing another quilt by an HOK person and discontinued fabrics?  Check out Susie Becker’s (HOK San Francisco) quilt made from old fabric samples.

As you might expect, there were quite a few drawings and paintings, a few home improvements, but also a couple of “outside the box” design pursuits. Colin Benson, visualization specialist by trade, industrial designer by education, and bicycle-restorer by night brought in two amazing restored bicycles, including a bicycle built for two.  (Yes, many of the folks in the office took a spin on the bike outside the office the next day). Office manager Deadra Barnett shared her hidden talent as a makeup artist. Giving live demonstrations of makeup application, Deadra shared her talents along with some very helpful tips for applying our own makeup.

Jelena Lustica shared an amazing photo display – check out her set below:

Sean Quinn’s contributions were also of the photography variety:

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

The rest of 2012′s fabulous design class included:

Donna Sharpe: Enamel Metalwork

Kyle Bendle: Photography and a drawing

Jim Doussard: Painting and Silhouettes

Azeez Bakare: Multimedia Presi presentation

Esher Wang: Paintings

Walter Urbanek: Painting

Izumi Mills: Jewelry design

Kerry Aucamp: Painting

Mallory McKenzie: Landscaping/Deck project

Nishu Sinha: Stone Sculpture

Sara Streeter: Painting and Graphic Design

Jarek Bieda: Illustration

Carl Mukri: Photography (roller coasters)

Check out last year’s fabulous designs in Sean Quinn’s post (3rd Annual) Design by Designers and those from 2010 in Yiselle Santos’ post, Design by Designers First Friday at WDC.

Photo credits: Jim Doussard, Kyle Bendle, Sean Quinn, and Jelena Lustica

HOK is certianly the type of firm the appreciates the dedication that people make to HOK, which is in fact what makes HOK the great organiztion that it is.  It is important to recognize the diversity of each of these individuals that make up the greater part of HOK.  To celebrate and enhance our diversity, as well as to show appreciation for the hard working employees of Corporate and the North Central Region, HOK St. Louis’ Diversity Task Force decided to hold a coffee break to bring coworkers together and to announce the task force plans for the year.

In an effort to remove some barriers, get people away from desks and talking, the “Where Were You Born?” coffee break brought everyone out for coffee, juice, doughnuts, and fruit and to put a pin in a map to show where each person was born.  It was fun to watch people go up and put a pin at their birthplace which always started a conversation, “oh, you were born in Texas also”.  While there was a lot of speculation that most pins would be placed in the St. Louis region, it turns out that is not the case.  There certainly was that expected concentration, but nearly half the pins were placed elsewhere in the United States and a considerable handful of international birthplaces.

You’ll have to stay tuned for the Diversity Task Force 2012 plans which include Diversity Week in July with possible events like Leaders of Today/Tomorrow Panel, Speed Mentoring, Lunch Lottery, HOK Art Show, and a Taste of Diversity Cook Off.  The year will be topped off with what will hopefully be a North Central Region Diversity task plan that takes our St. Louis hope to a larger realm with Diversity Training, Commitment to Mentoring, making diversity part of the HOK DNA.  With all of this will come the opportunity to support other initiatives like Wellness and HOK Impact all working towards a more common goal.

I know other HOK offices as well as non HOK companies are out there are doing similar things, we’d love to hear about them!  Please share how you promote diversity!

A Sampling of Other Diversity Posts:
Diversity in Action – HOK Supports 2011 NOMA Conference Atlanta
DC Diversity Task Force
Women Across HOK | Jaki Jefferson
Women Across HOK | Penny Malina
HOK-STL KIDZ in Action!

And a quick shout out to the St. Louis Diversity Task Force: Co Chairs Donovan Olliff, and Teresa Bridges; Members: Ben W., Heather L., Jacquie W., Julie D., Kaven S., Sebrina B., Kelly H., Mike J., Rebecca N., David C., Penny ., Jaki J., Maddy R., Dianne B., Sherita B., Stephanie S., Peter M., Jeff Y., and thanks to Michelle O. for the map! And for Kyle B. making sure I don’t say too much with too little.

Greg Schleusner and I were invited to visit Oslo by our new strategic software partners – dRofus. Back in December 2011, it was announced that HOK and dRofus entered a 3-year enterprise license agreement to use their client-server database solution for integrated program management on a majority of HOK’s building projects. While members of the dRofus team have visited our offices in the US and London, this was our first visit to their office in central Oslo. We had the benefit of an unusually warm week in the region, which allowed us to dine outdoors for just about every meal! Think about that…there are SO many restaurants with outdoor dining in a city that is at 60 degrees North latitude! They really embrace the crisp clean air and make the most of any nice weather.

It was so refreshing to return to a relationship with a software provider who understands our workflows and aligns their development priorities with our needs. During our weeklong visit, Greg and I spent a day or so at the dRofus office discussing ways to push the integration of their tool with Revit even further. According to Rolf Jerving, CEO of dRofus, HOK has been the driving force behind their amazing and almost seamless connection to the Revit platform.

While we were visiting, dRofus also conducted their very first user conference. Of course, we were invited to share our implementation experiences; however, we had the benefit of observing how regional teams were already using the tool and gaining true value from managing the I in BIM as they say. Presentations were made on the new Ostfold hospital in Fredrikstad, the DNU hospital in Aarhus, Denmark; and the new Terminal 2 at Oslo Airport.

On Tuesday night, we were able to join up with the buildingSMART International User Group and Technical Management Committee for a bit of Norwegian folklore at the Cultural Museum in Bygdøy. We learned that the Norwegians consider beer to be a ‘gift from God’ and we all drank from the beer bowl and toasted, ‘Skaal!’

Finally, we attended the more formal buildingSMART Norway conference where we were treated to a keynote presentation by HOK’s CEO, Patrick MacLeamy. It’s always a pleasure to watch Patrick give a presentation in his calm, cool, and matter-of-fact way. There is such an excitement, interest, and motivation to support open BIM in that part of the world. I hope that same enthusiasm can be shared in North America and other parts of the world.

Patrick may not look too happy in the photo I snapped above, but trust me…his dedication and support to the buildingSMART movement is unparalleled. Before we departed Oslo, Greg and I were able to explore the city – a rarity at least in my hectic travel schedule. Feel free to check out some more of my photos of the Oslo Opera House, Holmenkollen Ski Jump Tower and the Vigelandsparken sculpture park.

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!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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:

In the 2012 Super Bowl Host Committee‘s video tour of the hotel, JW Marriott’s Cory Chambers credits the airport, JW Marriott and other major projects with creating “this amazingly compelling story above and beyond any other city in the country right now.”

“When you add it all up, it’s about $3 billion worth of investment,” Chambers said, ”and the JW is the bookend, or the last phase, of that reinvention of the city.”

The hotel facility – the largest JW Marriott in the world – is connected to Lucas Oil Stadium and has the capacity to host all media operations under one roof. Fans can scout out celebrities in the media HQ’s “Radio Row,” where an estimated 5,000 media workers have set up shop to broadcast Super Bowl news to the world.

Looking for more Super Bowl architectural eye candy? Check out the JW Marriott Indianapolis Facebook page to view stunning day and night photos in the hotel’s Lombardi Trophy Photo Contest.