On Saturday, April 2nd, 2011, Paul Woolford, the design director at HOK San Francisco, presented one of most striking projects of this office – the restoration and greening of the San Francisco Mint, at the TED-x Presidio event. Paul spoke about the need for preserving national historic treasures, and discussed the importance of creating the most environmentally innovative National Historic Landmark in the United States, The Old San Francisco Mint, and the sustainable lessons learned that can be applied to all existing buildings.
Watch Paul’s presentation:
Guest blog post from HOK San Francisco’s Justin Kelly:
Leaders, visionaries, artists, and thinkers gathered on April 2nd at the Palace of Fine Arts …
London have been the delighted hosts of the much-celebrated Bobblehead Bill (BB) over the past month. BB, as our guest has been affectionately known to us over the past few weeks, has been engaging, witty and full of energy, demanding (in a civilised manner of course…) that his time in our great city should be used wisely and well, so that he gets to see everything it has to offer.
BB particularly bonded with our own sustainability guru Shashi Narayanan, so much so that they did most of their sightseeing together. A selection of his sightseeing tours can be seen in the photographs below.
Following an introduction and update on the chapter’s activities by Executive Director Tom Mawson, and a thoughtful introduction by Laura Schonfeld (Secretary of the Board of Directors), Leigh took to the stage.
Her presentation discussed the context for the book, AHA! moments she had while writing it, and an analysis of what is coming down the pipeline …
As the Chicago, New York, and DC offices start to emerge from there winter slumbers talk around the office turns to who is going to bike to work and how are they are going to do it? What kind of bike? Clothing? Best routes to take? Well that last question just got easier for the newbie to answer thanks to Google Maps Bicycling.
Over the past few months Google has been scouting and documenting bike lanes in partnership with Rails-to-Trails Conservancy to provide biking directions in major cities across the US. It can even recommend routes to avoid big hills and heavily congested streets.
HOUSTON, TEXAS – The Green Workplace Booksigning Tour made its long awaited stop in the Lone Star State, after multiple stops in St. Louis, NY, WDC and Chicago. HOK along with Hines and Knoll sponsored the one night booksigning event which proved to be a lively yet intimate green evening. The event took place Wednesday, February 17, 2010, in the KNOLL showroom and in the lobby of the recently certified LEED Gold Williams Tower.
Leigh Stringer from Advance Strategies Washington DC, was the special guest to present findings and sign her book, The Green Workplace: Sustainable Strategies that Benefit Employees, the Environment and …
Yesterday, HOK New York had the pleasure of hosting its signature January Retrospective: A Talk + Book-Signing with Leigh Stringer. I am pleased to report that the event was a huge success and our team has received fantastic reviews from guests and HOK leaders alike. The HOK New York marketing team organized the effort under the leadership of Chris Laul. Sharon Paculor, Liz Royzman, Alex Robb and I were happy to see the fruits of our labor so elegantly harvested at the end of Leigh’s fabulous evening, hosted at the AIA Center for Architecture.
I must thank all of the HOK staff who played a role in …
I learned about a site today called bookcrossing.com that is the “Where’s George?” for books. You leave a book for a new person to read, they read it and pass it along where its adventure through the world is tracked online!
The site says the following…
BookCrossing is earth-friendly, and gives you a way to share your books, clear your shelves, and conserve precious resources at the same time. Through our own unique method of recycling reads, BookCrossers give life to books. A book registered on BookCrossing is ready for adventure.
Leave it on a park bench, a coffee shop, at a hotel on vacation. Share it with a
What do planners and designers read? Just in time to provide us all with some desperately needed last-minute holiday gift ideas, we asked our Life at HOK bloggers to tell us the books they most enjoyed in 2009. In return we got nothing resembling a trend, unless you can spot one amid the detective novels, cult classics, modern fables, philosophy, math, sustainability, science, business and Ayn Rand.
Though a couple respondents reported that they read on Kindles — one frequent traveler lavished “best thing in the world” praise on her new e-reader — and another loads audiobooks onto his iPod, most are still reading good, old-fashioned books. “The older, the better,” wrote Michelle. “I like …
Lately we’ve all been reading about the state of working women in the 21st century. The Shriver Report was recently released, validating the fact that, for the first time in our history, half of all US workers are women. Time Magazine also broached the topic, revisiting their story from 1972 in which they studied the state of the women in “the throes of women’s lib.” These, and many other confirming reports, are bringing the issues of the modern-day working woman to the forefront.
We’ve decided to add to this cultural discussion by introducing several of the Inspiring Women of HOK. We hope to bring forth some dialog as to these women’s …
Last week’s video expedition at the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Phoenix netted dozens of Green Aha! recordings. Courageous individuals from Japan, Argentina, London, Saudi Arabia and all across North America disclosed their personal epiphanies, moments of truth and shocking recycling tales. Our booth crew (Julie, Chris and yours truly) was joined at the conference by HOKLife bloggers Nico, Niall, Colin and Anica (as well as a couple dozen other HOK co-workers).
Below is a short video compilation of what we gathered. Check out a complete selection of Green Aha! moments on YouTube and Life at HOK….
Armed with a low-carbon camcorder, two director’s chairs and a boatload of salsa mix, this quirky band of environmentalists is heading to the Great Southwest.
HOK is turning the tables at Greenbuild ’09. Instead of adorning our booth with OUR story, we’re creating a platform for telling YOURS. That’s right, it’s Open Mic Night at next week’s big conference and expo in Phoenix.
During the show, we will be inviting individuals to share their Green Aha!, the moment they first realized the importance of living and/or working “green.”
We will broadcast those inspiring tales at our booth, as well as uploading them to a YouTube Channel so others can share the experience. The most profound Aha! moments will win a free signed copy of The Green Workplace.
About a year ago, I gave you an update of what was going on in my work life. Looking back over the last year of Life@HOK, I thought it might be fun to revisit that post,and let you know what’s going on now! You’ll see from the list below that some things have stayed the same, but lots of cool new things have come up too!
Revisiting old news:
GSA Unit Cost Study: just about wrapped up!
U.S. Capitol Complex Master Plan (still going, and I still can’t tell you more or I’d have to shoot you)
The event was held on the green roof of 700 Sixth Street, one of DC’s first LEED C&S Platinum buildings (designed by HOK, of course). The building’s developer, Akridge, gracefully allowed HOK to use the roof deck (and downstairs lobby when the fall wind and a few sprinkles picked up), as well as providing tours of the space on the fourth floor (currently tracking LEED CI Gold!). Food was …
Our very own HOK author extraordinaire, Leigh Stringer, was in Chicago yesterday for a book-signing. Festivities were held in the HOK-designed Allsteel-Gunlocke showroom. It was a great event with a wonderful turnout. Books flew off the shelf! Check out the photos here.
We’ve been talking a lot about The Green Workplace recently, which is great for the greenies…but did you know that HOK also published our Monograph this month?!
The Monograph is the brainchild of Bill Hellmuth, HOK’s president, and was brought from a twinkle in his eye into a 416-page tome designed by talented HOK WDC Director of Graphics Jim Doussard.
A “coming of age” book, this document shares gorgeous photography and fascinating stories about HOK projects from across the globe. Some numbers for you list geeks out there:
18 months to complete
3 continents (published in Australia, printed in China, shipped to WDC)
Roughly two years ago (Thanksgiving 2007) I started a blog called TheGreenWorkplace. Not long after, several other HOK folks were blogging along with me, including Jodi Williams, Anica Landreneau and Emma Wharton, three talented bloggers for Life at HOK. After just a few months and lots of web traffic, we knew we had something. In January of 2007 we decided to make it a book, and after writing a few chapters and hiring an agent (Lauren Abramo), we landed a book deal with a great publisher, Palgrave Macmillan. Special credit goes to the HOK Advance Strategies team in DC for helping write and research: Jodi Williams, …
I’m a huge fan of Facebook and all the joy it brings connecting me with long lost friends from all over the world. And based on Facebook’s growth, many, many others are huge fans as well! Interestingly, companies have realized this big time and are creating groups and pages for users to “fan” as they see fit. HOK is no different – we’ve got lots of pages and groups showcasing our work and mission. Go here for HOK Careers. I’ve been shamelessly promoting The Green Workplace (our new book coming out August 4) on Facebook as well. (Please fan the book, seriously, my publisher will totally love you.)
But here’s a thought. With all of these companies vying for our attention …
Today’s installment of 5 Questions features Tim O’Connell, a boomerang HOK employee. Tim worked at the DC office first in 2000-2001, moved to Boston, and then decided he simply couldn’t stay away and rejoined HOK WDC in 2006.
Q: What five words describe HOK?
A: Versatile, Exciting, Innovative, Influential, Design and Quality-Focused,
It finally happened. After a almost year of writing away on The Green Workplace, I got my first blogging gig! Apparently a PR firm started reading the blog a while back and thought I would be perfect to give a ”Green Workplace Makeover” to one of their customer’s customers. I’ll reveal more later… I have to keep the details confidential until October 28 due to a product launch. Yesterday, I was filmed interviewing employees of a small family business and I did a walk through of the workplace sharing ”tips to green your business.” I felt like a blonde Bob Vila on This Old House. And boy do I have more respect for the hosts of those TV shows! The camera guys were great, but …
Some of you may know that I work in HOK Advance Strategies, a group of specialists within HOK. We’re a worldwide group that is embedded in HOK offices and located on-site with clients. I’m part of the Advisory group and sit in the WDC office (in the middle of the interiors group).
I and the people in my group are not your typical architects and designers (although many are trained as architects…others are MBAs, planners, landscape architects, social scientists, interior designers, etc.). The Advance Strategies “one-liner” is: As a specialized, multidisciplinary group within HOK, the world’s leading design and services firm, the specialists of HOK Advance Strategies are leaders, analysts, …
Today’s installment of 5 Questions features Tim O’Connell, a boomerang HOK employee. Tim worked at the DC office first in 2000-2001, moved to Boston, and then decided he simply couldn’t stay away and rejoined HOK WDC in 2006. 
