Photo courtesy St. Louis Science Center Facebook page
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 …
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 …
As an addition to the original Moscow Chancery designed by HOK more than 20 years ago, the 241,000-sq.-ft. New Office Annex at the US Embassy in Moscow is one of the first embassies built under the new Department of State Design Excellence Program. It is scheduled to open in 2016.
At the request of our clients, Roger Schwabacher, AIA, and director of graphics Jim Doussard in HOK’s DC office recently designed and installed this display in the main lobby of the US Department of State’s Overseas Buildings Operations headquarters.
This post, written by HOK President Bill Hellmuth, originally appeared on the U.S. Green Building Council‘s blog.
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.
The HOK team that designed the LEED-NC Platinum King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) campus in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, earned a $50,000 award. Instead of dividing this money among the team, Science + Technology Director Bill Odell and other project leaders set out to …
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 …
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 …
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 …
StopWaste.org won the Top Ten Award for green building policy
The US Green Building Council’s California Council spent yesterday in Sacramento unveiling our Top 10 List of State and Local Green Building Policies as part of the yearlong “Road to Greenbuild.” I’m a longtime green building nerd and live in one of the greenest cities in the country, and yet even I am impressed with the wide array of inspiring and visionary policies and ideas. The USGBC page also lists some of the top LEED buildings in California, …
Here at HOK, we love a good design challenge, and the offices of the Taproot Foundation certainly qualified as one. Mismatched furniture and cramped quarters were hindering the organization’s functionality, so it was time for a refresh!
What does Taproot do? From their website: “Taproot is a nonprofit organization that makes business talent available to organizations working to improve society. We engage the nation’s millions of business professionals in pro bono services both through our award-winning programs and by partnering with companies to develop their pro bono programs.”
It was appropriate, then, that our San Francisco office donated pro bono time toward this good cause. Read on as designer Emily Fettig answers some questions about this cool project.
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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 …
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!
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 …
Talk about ending the year on a high note!
2011 has been a great year for HOK’s competitive spirit – what with a major competition win in the Metropolis Net Zero competition followed by our latest award:
A Jury Recognition Award for HOK San Francisco’s entry to the Architecture at Zero International Competition, sponsored by the AIA San Francisco and PG&E!
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.”
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Scheduled to open in Los Angeles in the summer of 2013, the 440,000-sq.-ft. pavilion brings together high-quality outpatient care, innovative medical and scientific research and exceptional graduate and professional education in one facility. Cedars Sinai’s patients will be the ultimate beneficiaries of this highly collaborative environment.
“The idea of advanced sciences and healthcare combined into one structure, as well as the sustainable strategies, guided the character and image of the building,” says HOK lead designer Ernest Cirangle. “That gave us this wonderful opportunity to create a building that has a synergy of both healthcare and science. This new model of care is the essence of the building.”
HOK’s team has designed the Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion to be a LEED Gold certified building.
The …
We’re thrilled that Sarah Weissman, architect and fearless leader of HOK IMPACT, is guest blogging about Project Haiti for Metropolis magazine’s Point of View blog. You can click here to read the first entry and check out her latest post below:
Sarah and a young boy at Fondation Enfant Jesus in Port au Prince (photo was taken by one of the children who discovered a new love for playing with Sarah’s camera)
When HOK was asked to partner with the USGBC on Project Haiti, a children’s center in Port au Prince, we decided immediately that the most appropriate approach to the project would require an integrated, multi-disciplinary team. So we assembled …
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 …
The US Southern Command Headquarters project received a Design Build Excellence Award at the National DBIA Conference last week!
http://www.dbia.org/about/awards/national/2011projects.htm
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.
http://www.abccentralflorida.com/
And…
In MarketWatch (a …
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 …
The 41-story Great American Tower at Queen City Square has been awarded LEED Gold certification. Gyo Obata led the design team in HOK’s St. Louis office.
“Great American Tower at Queen City Square is the greenest office building in downtown Cincinnati, in addition to being the tallest and largest,” said Mario San Marco, president of Eagle Realty Group.
Read more here.
As the first high school built in this New Jersey city in 90 years, Union City Demonstration High School relocated two former high schools as part of a redevelopment program for the city and its surrounding community. Check out this distinctive rooftop football field and the rest of this state-of-the-art facility here.
Housed at 1065 Avenue of the Americas in the heart of Manhattan, HOK’s new New York office provides tremendous opportunities for collaboration inside the studio and connects with the city by engaging the iconic Bryant Park. Get a feel for this bright, open space by checking out this Flickr set.
“I love to design complex buildings with a public role, and try to make them look simple,” says Yann Weymouth, design director for HOK Florida.
Yann Weymouth (center) touring the Salvador Dalí Museum
Achieving this goal in the St. Petersburg, Fla., Salvador Dalí Museum was no small task. In this truly unique project, Yann and his team created a masterpiece that, while structurally complex, honored the intrigue and elegance of Dalí’s work.
This month, Structural Engineer took an in-depth look at the engineering that makes this structure work. From the iconic glass “Enigma” on the exterior to the 58-foot concrete helix inside to the attention paid to protecting Dalí’s masterworks in a …
Wellmark’s new headquarters in Des Moines is currently the largest LEED-NC Platinum certified building in Iowa and has been recognized by the USGBC as the largest commercial office building in the world to receive LEED-NC Platinum certification. Pretty cool, huh? Check it out here.
What may sound like a symphony of seals at the aquarium is just coincidental alliteration – but the title above is arccurate, er, accurate. Check out Los Angeles designer Arnold Lee’s thoughts on designing ARTIC, the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center. This online publication, ArchitypeReview, asks design professionals throughout the community to discuss a certain topic each month. This month’s topic: trains. We’re proud to see Arnold and ARTIC gracing this web page, in the company of some great designers and projects.
The Metropolis Next Generation entry has garnered another award: 2011 AIA-DC Unbuilt Award. The 2011 Washington UNBUILT Awards Program recognizes excellence in projects that to date remain unbuilt – theoretical and unbuilt commissioned projects. Congratulations again to the HOK / Vanderweil Design Team!
Integral to the development of this project was a balance between energy conservation measures and design aesthetics. While this goal may seem evident, available technologies create a unique challenge for designers to marry these two principles. It took great strides to move from research into development, and formalize gestures into 3D Vizualizations that were recently featured at Design DC, where the AIA-DC Unbuilt Awards were announced.
The final renderings are …
Check out this Flickr set of NASA’s Building 20 at the Johnson Space Center. Not only does it establish a new collaborative workplace paradigm for NASA, but the LEED Platinum building is also 57% more energy efficient than the typical office building…
in this case it is saint louis, more specifically washington university on the occasion of my 30th?! college reunion. many things change in 30 years. for example, in the past, washington university made room for late 20th century architecture in the early 20th century tudor gothic campus.
eliot hall was built in 1974 as the law school and it included an all glass outlook that was a favorite destination of mine:
built in 1985 to house the business school, simon hall is slightly more contemporary than the university buildings to follow. how did a major center of architectural education turn its …
The library at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, better known as KAUST, recently earned an AIA/ALA Library Building Award for design excellence.
This building isn’t just a place to store books. Designers focused on the social and technological sides of learning to bring this library to life. (The design is sustainable, too – KAUST happens to be the world’s largest LEED-NC Platinum facility!)
“Those of us who work in the KAUST library every day certainly appreciate its architectural beauty,” KAUST library director Joseph Branin said. “It is a wonderful building to work in, and more important, the students …
