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 …

 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 …

Every year, innovators across the world develop new solutions to address issues revolving around climate change.  While many of these ideas are developed in a bubble, there is a strong need to push innovation further and enable individuals and large organizations alike to take the next evolutionary step in sustainabilty.  The Katerva Challenge arose out of such need and “serves to identify, award and accelerate ingenious ideas that will enable the global community to live sustainably with the planet.”  It looks for breakthrough ideas across multiple industries and practices, and beyond putting a temporary spotlight on them, attempts to connect innovators with a larger network of businesses that may enable them to refine, thrive, …

¿Por qué HOK?

Alfredo Landaeta, Vicepresidente del HOK Planning Group, conversa sobre la aproximación metodológica del HOK Planning Group al desarrollo de proyectos y sus ventajas para clientes tanto del sector público como del privado. Basado en experiencias recientes en Latinoamérica, específicamente en Colombia, Alfredo discute como esta metodología ha resultado en soluciones económicamente rentables y altamente personalizadas para proyectos que presentan retos complejos, ya sean técnicos o sociales.

When you think of retirement, what do you envision?

Anymore, many people probably picture a slightly more active transition into the Golden Years. (Or, at the very least, they’d choose to sit on a recliner or hammock in favor of those scratchy-looking haybales.)

Baby Boomers, I’m looking at you!

The Baby Boom may have ended decades ago, but that generation is bringing on another boom – this time, toward retirement. The impending change presents several new challenges for planners, urban designers, architects, landscape architects, graphic designers and industrial designers.

“On Jan. 1 of this year, the first of the Baby Boomers turned 65, so this has initiated a new demographic shift that has been described as …

Once Rob and his team began doing work in the Middle East, the landscape was never the same. Rob has worked on projects throughout the region for over a decade. In celebration of the work he as done there, Day 4 of “The Week of Rob“ features the following video clip of Rob speaking about HOK’s legacy in Saudi Arabia.

Be sure and check back tomorrow for the Grand Finale of “The Week of Rob“.

Meet Alfredo Landaeta, the brilliant urban design director for the HOK Planning Group in Toronto. Alfredo, who is originally from Caracas, Venezuela, holds a Master in Urban Design from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Alfredo has this to say about doing business in Latin America: “It is very personal relationship-oriented. You need to know the person you are going to be dealing with. It is very hard to do business by sending a proposal, trying to get someone to sign it and send you a check based on how nice your website is or how many articles you have published — that is is a no-go. You have to take the effort of shaking hands and getting a personal …

Two weeks ago at this time Atlanta was still blanketed in snow and the city was virtually shut down.  It isn’t unusual for Atlanta to get a light snow each winter, but this 6” – 8” was more than typical. Oh… and did I mention that the city only has 11 snowplows? (Given our average snowfall… an appropriate number of snowplows) But for this storm, the lack of snowplows cancelled school and closed businesses for days.

This is when it is great to live in a neighborhood that has a mix of uses to withstand the elements. Inman Park, located a mile and a half east of the CBD was Atlanta’s …

I just met a new awesome woman of HOK: the Planning Group’s fabulous Amy Roots, from HOK’s Toronto office.  No, I didn’t meet her because of a project or any official reason.  I met her because another awesome woman of HOK (Jeannette Thompson) decided that we should connect.  And we did! 

Amy’s about the same age that I am (we refer to ourselves as “tweeners” – not quite at the senior executive level, but well into our careers), and has been at HOK for about the same amount of time.  We giggled about how being in your early 30s is fantastic because it’s the “whatever” years.  Whatever you do …

Once a week, desirably more, realistically less, I peruse the digital catacombs of Architizer like a pirate on the high seas in search of hidden treasures of thought and inspiration. Alas I have found one (and by no means the only one), a bounty rich enough to share with others.

And so I share this thought project by the German based firm of architects and urban intellectuals, N2M. It begins with a quote whereby, “at each stage of history, we tend to be convinced that our present reality is the one that is ‘really’ real. Now we’ve got it figured out! Now we stand at the end of history!” The arrogance by which we …

I just finished writing about one City of the Future: Atlanta competitor, HollwichKushner , and now I’m about to write about another at TEDx Atlanta! Ellen Dunham-Jones led the team from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and talks in the above video about the ideas behind her brilliant book ‘Retrofitting Suburbia‘.

I’ve had the wonderful privilege of watching Ellen give this talk before about the concept, but in a bit more detail than 20 minutes will provide. Although, considering the time allotted, I thought she got out a lot of great data outlining the reasons why as well as a few examples of other places where this has been a successful endeavor making the …

Let me start by saying this is not your mother’s clean plate club. August Table is the brainchild of my friend Cherry Chaicharn who I met during my stint in Hong Kong. She has created a series of tabletop items and textiles to bring out the designer in all of us. This Chicago native and former transportation planner (who also admits to having a serious crush on San Francisco) is truly inspired by “place”. Her current “urban”ware series includes these great cities: San Francisco, Bangkok, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.

My own obsession with the dishes led to this interview for HOK Life with Cherry. One of the most interesting things about …

Autodesk University 2009 is a major industry event with over 6,000 attendees this year. I am fortunate to be representing HOK, co-presenting with Lee Miller and David Light in the 1.5-hr seminar entitled Revit for Urban Design. One of the auxiliary benefits for me, upon accepting this challenge, is the opportunity to visit Las Vegas.

But before all the fun starts, it is absolutely imperative to prepare for and subsequently deliver a comprehensive presentation. While Lee will focus on the foundamentals outlined according to his book, I will be focusing on real-world applications and results. I have given presentations on Revit implementation a few …

Based in Atlanta, Monte Wilson is a senior vice president in the HOK Planning Group.

“It’s a good time to do what we do. The services that we provide as planners, urban designers and landscape architects are, on a certain level, perhaps recession-proof. Folks are always needing to evaluate what to do next in our cities and communities. … The project work that we have going on right now on the boards just in the Planning Group amounts to a land area the size of Connecticut. When you think about that impact we have through our planning decisions on the built form – the transportation networks, the environment, the water, et cetera – there is a huge responsibility.”

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Life at HOK blogger Chirayu Bhatt has worked as an urban planner in HOK’s Atlanta studio since 2005. He earned his undergraduate degree in Architecture from the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad, India, and completed his Masters of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Tech. Chirayu is passionate about all things urban and about the opportunity to positively influence India’s development through his work at HOK — plus he’s an all-around cool guy.

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Here in HOK’s Corporate group in St. Louis I sit across the row from two brilliantly talented programmers in the firm’s Advanced Technology Group: Nag from Hyderabad, India, and Steven, aka ‘X-Dog,’ from Nanjing, China. HOK has offices and is doing lots of work in both India and China, so it’s always fascinating to hear their perspectives on the development frenzy taking place in their home countries. But this story is about the lives of the people being impacted by these historic changes – one life in particular.

Steven’s wife, Mary, also comes from Nanjing. The other day Steven asked for my help translating a poem written in Mandarin Chinese by Mary’s eight-year-old niece, XinXin, back in Nanjing. It seems XinXin needed to recite the poem in …

Sylvester Wong is the director of planning and urban design in HOK’s Hong Kong studio. He designs cities…plays “SimCity for real.”

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HOK began its seven-year relationship with Lavasa as part of an international competition to plan the first new hill station in India since the country was freed from British rule. The winning concept was just the beginning of HOK’s involvement in this series of compact villages dappled along the water’s edge of 9000+ acres in the mountainous Western Ghats region between Mumbai and Pune.

St. Louis-based urban designer Dhaval Barbhaya has been one of the project leaders for HOK since the beginning. Over the past seven years, he has traveled to India more than 50 times. Click the play button to hear Dhaval describe how water has inspired the design of this incredible place. 

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