Watch them say Gracias!!

Over a year ago, Kristy (HOK Miami) and I decided to book a trip to Peru… fast
forward to June 2013, and we have returned from 10 days of majestic beauty and
historical ruins. The tour included Lima, Chinchero, Sacred Valley of the Incas
(Urubamba and Ollantaytambo), Cusco, and Puno (with a boat ride on Lake
Titicaca and a visit to the floating islands of Uros).

Along the way to Puno we had the opportunity to stop and visit a local elementary
school. Prior to our trip we had collected school supplies which we were able
to hand deliver to the school children. Thanks to all of you that donated items and help put
a smile on these young deserving children’s faces!

The trip as a whole was an uplifting and emotionally rewarding experience.

Traditional design-build-operate delivery models provide no guarantee that operating performance will match design expectations. Operational energy use often doesn’t match the design energy goals. Recent focus on building performance disclosure has exposed the gap between design expectations and actual performance. With the growing necessity for evidence based design, a holistic design process that incorporates environmental analysis and allows for integration and collaboration is paramount. This shift will require an innovative approach in risk allocation.

Additional presenters included Stephen Coates of Turner Construction Company and Garret Murai of Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean.

Zorana, vice president more than 20 years of experience in architecture, sustainable design and construction. Her expertise spans numerous building types and  climate regions, including Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the West Coast of the United States. She has a special interest in innovative sustainable design technologies applied to facade engineering, with special focus on energy savings and daylight enhancement technologies. She has been with HOK for 16 years.

Catherine Heath’s interior design team in HOK’s Washington, DC, office has nearly doubled in size since she joined the firm in 2008, the year the Great Recession began.

“I arrived a few weeks before the stock market crashed,” she says.

In addition to leading the DC interiors group, Heath heads HOK’s law office design specialists firm-wide. She has worked with more than 20 law firms during her career and is currently involved in more than 10 different law office projects across the US and internationally.

How did the DC interiors practice manage to grow during a down economy?

CH: When I started, most of our interior design work was supporting the office’s architectural projects. That is still an important and exciting part of our work, but we have expanded to build a strong standalone practice. We have attracted extremely talented designers and as a result have landed great clients.

What are some of your team’s recent law office projects?

We’re designing law offices around the world for Arnold & Porter. Our core team in DC provides oversight for HOK’s teams in other cities.

We are designing the headquarters for Arnold & Porter, a 375,000-square-foot office in Washington. They are the anchor tenant for a new building at 601 Massachusetts Avenue developed by Boston Properties. Arnold & Porter is completely reinventing its work environment to support how they will be working in the future. They are making significant improvements in efficiency as well as in the quality of their workplace. We created an extensive workplace strategy to help determine how to shed space that would be irrelevant, keep what was essential and design the rest to adapt to new criteria over time. The office will be light, bright and capture their unique culture.

We just completed a 60,000-square-foot law office project for Dechert in a building on K Street here in DC. The team created an extremely efficient space without compromising on quality. Their offices are spacious and filled with natural light. One challenge was that Dechert’s people needed to move into the office less than 10 months after we were brought on board. Even with the accelerated schedule, it is exquisitely detailed and precisely built.

Dechert Law Office in Washington, DC

What do you enjoy about working with law firms?

I like the dialogue that results when law firms are very interested in improving their workplaces to keep pace with new ways of working and technology. Lawyers are very smart and ask thoughtful questions that help us improve the quality of our work and, as we respond to them, our methods of presenting information.

As evidence-based decision makers, lawyers need to be convinced to change their traditional approach to offices. They are adept at challenging information because that’s what they do for a living every day. The workplace design firm must make a strong business case for changing its approach to office design. If they can’t, law firms will stick to what they know.

They like to see examples of what other law firms have been doing. At HOK, we don’t say, “These are the law office trends that many firms are following, so you should do them, too.” Instead, we talk to them about their vision, values and business goals. We help law firms understand which strategies are relevant to how they do business – or create new strategies based on their unique needs. Then we design for flexibility so their new workplace can change over time as technology and work processes continue to evolve.

When we help law firms make decisions about their real estate and facilities, we are extremely clear and logical in how we communicate. This rigor raises the bar in how we interact with clients and how we help them build consensus within their own organization.

Tell me about your project for the National Cancer Institute.

Another project opening this year is a new research campus for the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland. This is a 575,000-square-foot campus that our interiors team designed in collaboration with HOK’s architects, planners, landscape architects, sustainability specialists and graphic designers.

This is an innovative workplace. More than 60 percent of the offices are enclosed to support the highly focused work of NCI’s researchers. Our planning concept pulls many of the offices away from the exterior wall and arranges them in neighborhoods so daylight can reach into the center of the space. As a result, a much higher percentage of workers have views to daylight.

NCI has a strong mission of leading cancer research and training. The design integrates their mission into the space with features like the gorgeous green, living walls in the lobby. A fitness center and cafeteria overlook an outdoor terrace space. The space is fresh and energizing so it can help researchers focus on their important mission.

What’s the most satisfying part of your job?

I like creating space and then seeing how it comes together and being able to walk through it at the end. It’s exciting to experience the built product.

We design a lot of office space. Because people spend so much time at work, we want them to think of their workplace as a fun, pleasant place. It’s very rewarding when clients tell us how much they love their space and what a difference it makes in their lives.

What do you enjoy about living in the DC area?

The city was planned with lots of light and air moving through the streets. It’s bright and energizing. We have access to lots of outdoor space and so many things to do. It’s an easy place to live.

Our office is great. It is in a beautiful, old warehouse in the cool neighborhood of Georgetown. We have huge windows overlooking the C&O Canal.

HOK DC office in Georgetown

Do you have advice for young designers entering the profession?

Absorb everything around you like a sponge and develop strong communication skills. Rather than carrying out one person’s vision, we work as teams at HOK. People succeed when they listen to what is going on within the team and feel confident adding their own ideas.

What do you do when you’re not working?

I’m creating a long-term strategic plan to make my dad’s farm more sustainable. It’s a 250-acre Black Angus cattle farm in Virginia that has been in our family since 1939. I’m learning about farm business by taking an online class from Virginia Tech.

The farm has many different ecosystems and different types of terrains. I have lots of ideas on how to use this space and one day make it sustainable and maybe go off the grid. Farming is a lot of work, but developing this plan is really fun!

On May 10, HOK’s Ottawa office hosted a lunch fundraiser in support of Project Haiti. Lynn Ferron, Ottawa’s Sustainable Leader, organized this event, setting the stage for a lovely afternoon. Lynn was inspired by the creation of Project Haiti, its development, and all those dedicated to its realization, many of whom are passionate volunteers who have devoted much of their personal time to the redesign of the Orphanage and Community Center in Port-au-Prince.

In the same spirit, the Ottawa office worked together in support of the fundraising effort, approaching grocery stores for gift card donations, and ingredients for a pot-luck at the office. Several HOK foodies cooked up spectacular recipes as well. The menu included marinated roast beef cooked on a rotisserie, a variety of colorful, delicious salads, fresh bread, Thai pumpkin soup and plenty of dessert – all of which were savoured by industry sales reps, consultants and fellow colleagues who were all invited to join in the effort.

With much drive and determination, we managed to raise $895.00 for the lunch as well as $215.00 from a penny drive leading up to the luncheon, for a grand total of $1,110.00! Special thanks to all of the generous donations, making this a tremendous success!

Lynn’s enthusiasm extends well beyond our event however – she is openly challenging other HOK offices to match or surpass Ottawa’s fundraising achievement.  The USGBC has reached 85% of its one million dollar fundraising goal. In driving the momentum forward, the 100% goal will soon be a reality.

Building on the “Steampunk’d: One” presentation given at the Living Future 2012 unConference, Woolford and Bosnic presented “Steampunk’d: Two – Regenerating the Past for Future Resilience” with Kathryn Merlino, University of Washington assistant professor of architecture, and Peter Rumsey, Integral Group chief technology officer and West Coast managing director. This interactive session illustrated ways to adapt successful passive strategies into environmental building solutions. With a focus on regenerating buildings from the past, the audience learned how to meet the goals of progressive renewal and contemporary, performance-based design.

Knittel presented “Bringing the Genius of the Biome to Create Resiliency in the Built Environment” with Jamie Dwyer, Biomimicry 3.8 biologist at the design table, and Kathy Zarsky, HOLOS biomimicry specialist. This  presentation discussed the Genius of Biome, a new report and design resource developed by HOK and Biomimicry 3.8. Participants joined in a work session in which they applied Genius of Biome to specific design challenges, including understanding how flora and fauna thrive in similar climates around the world and how natural patterns and solutions span continents.

Paul Woolford, senior vice president and design principal in HOK’s San Francisco office, is a recognized industry leader whose work focuses on helping people rethink their relationship with their environment. He leads an interdisciplinary team of architects, engineers, land planners, interiors and landscape designers. He has taught design at the University of California, Berkeley; Cornell University; and Savannah College of Art and Design. He was named “Outstanding Young Architect of the Year” by the AIA.

Zorana Bosnic, vice president and sustainable design director for HOK’s San Francisco office, has more than 20 years of experience in architecture, sustainable design and construction. Her expertise spans numerous building types and  climate regions, including Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the West Coast of the United States. She has a special interest in innovative sustainable design technologies applied to facade engineering, with special focus on energy savings and daylight enhancement technologies.

Thomas Knittel is a vice president and project designer in HOK’s Seattle office. A licensed architect since 1986, he joined HOK in 2007 and has become one of the firm’s leading sustainable design advocates. His work in biomimicry – drawing inspiration from natural systems to solve human problems – integrates models from nature into the design of buildings, communities and cities.

Drawing on research on building component manufacturers and software suppliers across the globe, he showed the many ways that free Revit® families are provided to users of BIM software. To address the issues of quality and availability of building components in Revit format, Bruce identified cloud-based tools that can be used to influence manufacturers, commercial consolidators and other BIM content providers. Using these free, cloud-based collaboration tools, architects and engineers can help eliminate the roadblock to design productivity created by missing and poor-quality BIM components.

Bruce is a BIM Manager at HOK San Francisco. His work in BIM – taking inspiration from Just-In-Time manufacturing – focuses on integrating Lean Design processes into everyday tasks of architects and engineers. Bruce joined HOK in 2008 and holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from California State University and a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.

For more information, please contact Bruce at 415-356-8718 or bruce.madsen@hok.com

HOK took home one of three prizes for the IIDA’s the Windows Event. This makes 2 years in a row for HOK winning People’s Choice!

To give you some background on the competition – each design team is given an empty window to transform utilizing a theme, a set of guidelines and imagination. Hosted by the IIDA every year for the past three years, the event aims to provide color to the windows along Central Market, and raise money for a charity in the area. This year’s theme involved teams visiting the Central Market area to take photos and using a single photo as the inspiration for the design of the window.

While some HOK team members ventured off in pairs, many trekked the mid-Market area solo to figure out the story the neighborhood was burning to tell. The group collectively amassed colorful photographic sound bites.

So many photos fit the bill of arousing inspiration, but the themes determined to be conveyed by the group were clearly captured by the photo of the pavers, reminiscent of the Market street grid. This photo and statement by our very own Joseph O’Neill encapsulates growth amidst destruction, the layering of old and new, juxtapositions, movement, and if not the most profound the most recurring of all themes – contained chaos.

The Bricks.
Building blocks. City blocks. San Francisco Blocks.
Hand made, hand laid.
Horizontal and vertical, walls and floors.
No two alike.
Aged, cracked, broken. Repaired, replaced.
A foundation for activity and action.
The in-betweens.
It’s the mortar that binds the blocks.
It’s the people that activate the city.
Holding the potential and promise of growth and renewal.

The window design features suspended frames surrounding rectilinear pieces of perforated metal and remixed eco-resin that have an air of indiscriminate placement. The team randomly yet strategically positioned the pieces to reflect, distort and display the work of video artist Andrew Benson. Depending on where you stand, you may see a bunch of dots as the backdrop, or you may see the inspiration photo turned on its side.

How do you transform the blight of a neighborhood that can leave you feeling a heavy weight on your shoulders as you pass through? Introduce it to art, to dance, to movement with no strings attached; get it addicted to the positive effects of being fun again, so for the opening party, Tiktaktix dance group was invited to perform – their style reminiscent of the regular performances seen at the Powell Street turnabout, a neighboring area slightly more positively activated by the heavy foot traffic of shoppers and spectators.

At the opening party, the storefront glass was used as a medium through which the sound of dub step music traveled as the trio of pop and lockers put on a show. Fittingly, a clown on stilts could not help but join the dance crew with an impromptu number of his own. It was a fun surprise for the parade of visiting onlookers.

If you would like to see the window, it is located at the Blick Art Materials store located at 979 Market Street, SF. The window will be up for 5 weeks – take a look – day AND night.

Much like the mid-Market area, the window transforms; you get different perspectives depending on the distance of your lens and the time of day at which you decide to take a look. If you make it a point to view the window from different angles, distances, and times of day, you will get to witness the multiple
personalities of the HOK SF window design. The party comes out at night!

Please vote for us via twitter! Instructions on the image below.

https://twitter.com/IIDAWindows

This was a huge, creative, amazing (and long) collaboration – a big round of thanks to:

Skyline Construction:
Natasha Perstyn
Jon Hogg
Oscar Fernandez

Charles M. Salter
Associates, Inc.:
Davis H. Keith

Video Artist
Extraordinaire:
Andrew Benson

HOK:
Chris Gardini
Sam Ward
Breffni O’Rourke
Joseph O’Neill
Marissa Bruce
Seth Orgain
Matthew Fulvio
Donald Cremers
Scott Price
Aaron Hawkins
Ricky Rivero

Special Thanks to:
Our sponsor this year
Miguel Thurston w/ Caesarstone

ACE SF Team 3

The month of May might bring flowers for some, but around these parts it means ACE Final Presentation season! On May 14th 2013, our students and mentors were in high spirits as we got together for the conclusion of the 16 week long ACE program hosted by HOK San Francisco. Since January, our team had visited the project site, seen the Transbay terminal under construction, learned about the various disciplines involved in building construction, and worked on our mixed-use superblock project. We got to know students from various San Francisco schools and mentors from a variety of different backgrounds and firms.. and most importantly, we had fun! And now we had gathered to look back at what we did over the last few months.

Listening attentively!

It was showtime! Pizza was served, the lights were dimmed and our 4 judges, mentors and guest attendees listened attentively as the 4 student teams (Teams Blue, Red, Green and Orange) showcased their portion of the mixed use block. On the overall site, Team Red was responsible for a parking garage and bus bay, while Team Blue designed an outdoor plaza area. These two program elements were complimented by the retail block designed by Team Green. Finally, Team Orange designed an assembly pavilion that hovered above the other program elements. Each team presented their architectural, structural and engineering concepts along with systems for minimizing energy use. Construction costs for the building (calculated during our cost estimation session) were also presented. The total cost of our super block? A mere $156 million!

Our judges appreciated the hard work and creativity of each team and awarded titles to them: ‘Most Creative Design’ and ‘Best Teamwork’ were two such titles.

While this fun evening marked the end of the ACE SF3 2013 program, 8 of our students were off to the ACE Bay Area presentations on  May 18th. All the teams from the Bay Area met at San Jose State University to share thoughts and see each other’s projects. I’m proud to say that SF Team 3 did a wonderful job presenting their project – it was great to see how much they had done over the last few weeks and months!

Student presenters on stage!

All in all, another great year ended for ACE and we look forward to more learning and more laughs at ACE 2014!

If this sounds like something YOU want to be a part of, either visit the ACE website or reach out to me.

HOK NY ACE Mentor students

This year the New York program explored construction on the eastern coast line. The program was developed in response to Hurricane Sandy’s destruction. The team was asked to develop new ideas about building close to the water post-Hurricane Sandy. The students developed a program located on a site in lower Manhattan’s Battery Park. HOK’s engineering mentor teammates, Arup, helped to teach students about how structure can be designed to withstand hurricane forces. The students are in the process of finishing their project and will present it at the Center for Architecture located in Midtown Manhattan in June. This year’s ACE team had three scholarship winners: Jose Flores, Tiera-Lyn Colon and Yosselyn Mendieta. We wish them luck next year as they head off to college.

Click here to view the embedded video.

An interesting aspect of this conference was that ALL presentations were delivered in pecha kucha (or 20×20) style! This means that we had to share our content with 20 slides, 20 seconds each, for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Sounds crazy, right? The presenters were organized into groups of 3 or 4 representing one of five focus topics. Each focus topic had approximately 30 minutes of rapid-fire slide content, followed by 30 minutes of Q+A for the panel.

The pecha kucha+panel format seemed to be a success. Because the BIMForum events are a single-room, one-track conference, if someone’s presentation content was not relevant to you…you only had to suffer through it for a few minutes rather than a whole hour! Take a look at my pecha kucha presentation above  and you can also view others on the BIMForum’s YouTube channel.

They are also soliciting speaking proposals for the Fall BIMForum event being held in Denver, CO on the topic of Prefabrication & Modularization.