Last week I attended, quite possibly, my favorite of HOK customs… supporting the Forest Park Forever Women’s Committee by attending the Hiram W Leffingwell Hat Luncheon. Do you want to see the who’s who of top female execs in St. Louis? Wearing amazing and sometimes silly hats? And supporting one of the country’s foremost urban parks? I do…. and will and will and will!
Each year, the women of HOK attempt to contrive a “theme” for the table… this year, we went green, baby. I do believe we were the only ones there with completely compostable head …
To further our Women Across HOK series, we’ll next zoom over to St Louis to visit with Valerie Greer, a senior architect, who was one of the major forces behind the inimitable KAUST project. She is a rising star in the St Louis office and, since her trip around the world for the office, has become a company-wide name. A fellow-HOKLife-Blogger, Valerie always has a sensible world, a sharp design eye, and unending patience to lend to a project – and that makes her an inspiring woman at HOK.
Q: How did you decide to become an architect?
I graduated from college with an English major …
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 …
Alright, so we didn’t actually have a pic-a-nic basket like the one Yogi always yearned for, but this past Sunday the HOK St. Louis office did have an office pic-a-nic that would make Yogi jeaous.
A long forgotten tradition for the HOK STL office, the Family Picnic was resumed (after a nine year or greater absence – no one knows for sure) at the behest of Rebecca Nolan, Managing Principal of the office. The rest of the office jumped on board and a committee was formed to begin the planning, which landed us at the Ordnance Shelter at Sylvan Springs Park …
Life at HOK’s own Valerie Greer just returned to St. Louis after spending six months working in the Singapore office, which she calls a “dynamic studio environment.” In this clip she talks about what she learned. “The more we are collaborating and working across continents,” says Valerie, “the more richness we bring to the solutions and the design work we do for our clients.”
You can learn more about Valerie’s career as an architect — and what’s on her iPod — here:
Thanks to Valerie for playing along. I’m pretty sure that if the job of “HOK Spokesperson” existed, she would be uncontested in her appointment. Of course we’d miss her too much in the design studio to ever let …
