HOK Group, Inc.
TypePrivate
IndustryArchitecture, engineering, urban planning
Founded1955 (1955)
Founders
Headquarters
St. Louis, Missouri
,
United States
Number of locations
26 offices
Area served
International
Key people
  • Eli Hoisington
  • Susan Klumpp Williams (Co-CEOs)
  • Carl Galioto (President)
ServicesArchitecture, Consulting, Engineering, Experience Design, Interiors, Landscape Architecture, Lighting Design, On-Site Space Management, Planning + Urban Design, Sustainable Design
Number of employees
1,600[1]
Websitewww.hok.com
HOK founding partners George Hellmuth, Gyo Obata, and George Kassabaum (1956)
Priory Chapel at Saint Louis Abbey located in Creve Coeur a suburb of St. Louis
National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Tokyo Telecom Center in Tokyo
Passenger Terminal Amsterdam in Amsterdam
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia
Indianapolis International Airport Colonel H. Weir Cook Terminal in Indianapolis, Indiana
Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida
World Trade Center in Chennai, India
Rogers Place arena in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

HOK, formerly Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum and legally HOK Group, Inc., is an American design, architecture, engineering, and urban planning firm, founded in 1955.

History

Founding

HOK was established in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1955. The firm's name is derived from the surnames of its three founding partners: George F. Hellmuth, Gyo Obata and George Kassabaum, all graduates of the School of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. The design firm started with 26 employees and its three founders.[2]

The practice's first building designs were schools in St. Louis suburbs, and St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Florissant was the first private/parochial school designed by the firm. Another prominent school they designed was the Saint Louis Priory School.

Early years

By the mid-1960s, the firm was winning commissions across the United States and began to open additional offices, starting with San Francisco in 1966 for the design of a library at Stanford University and Dallas in 1968 for the master planning and design of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Also in 1968, HOK launched its interior design practice. HOK also expanded into Washington, D.C., after winning the commission to design the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. In 1973, HOK established a presence in New York by acquiring Kahn & Jacobs, designers of many New York City skyscrapers. By the 1970s, the firm was operating internationally and in 1975 the firm was named as architect of the $3.5 billion King Saud University in Riyadh, at the time the single largest building project in the world.[2] In 1979, George Kassabaum was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate Academician.

In 1983, HOK formed HOK Sport Venue Event, a subsidiary devoted entirely to designing sport stadiums, arenas, and convention centers, an architectural boom market at the time.[2] In January 2009, the Board of HOK Group, Inc. and managers of HOK Sports Facilities, LLC transferred ownership of HOK Sport to leaders of that practice. The company became an independent firm, and rebranded itself as Populous.[3]

Expansion and acquisitions

HOK's first office outside the US opened in Hong Kong in 1984, and the second in London in 1987, a practice that would be expanded in 1995 by merging with the British architectural practice Cecil Denny Highton. As of April 2021, HOK operates offices in seven different countries including the US, China, India, and Canada,[4] where it established its first offices in 1997 with the acquisition of Urbana Architects.[5] The firm expanded into China in 2013, when it acquired the New York and Shanghai offices of hospitality design firm BBG-BBGM, creating one of the world's largest interior design firms,[6] although BBG-BBGM's office in Washington, D.C. continues to operate as BBGM. By 2007, international work represented more than 40% of HOK's annual revenue.[7]

Other domestic acquisitions include Caudill Rowlett Scott based in Houston, Texas, in November 1994, adding offices in Houston and Atlanta, and 360 Architecture in January 2015, a 200-person, Kansas City-based firm specializing in the design of stadiums, ballparks, arenas, recreation and wellness centers, and mixed-use entertainment districts. The acquisition enabled HOK to launch a new global Sports, Recreation, and Entertainment design practice after the breakaway of Populous, and to open new offices in Kansas City and Columbus, Ohio.[8] This return to the firm's tradition of stadium architecture was buoyed on May 15, 2015, when the firm announced a multi-year partnership with the United Soccer League (USL) in the US to lead a stadium development, design and standards initiative to help house all USL clubs in soccer-specific stadiums across North America by the end of the decade.[9]

Leadership

In 2023, Eli Hoisington and Susan Klumpp Williams became co-CEOs of HOK.[10] They are the youngest and first female CEOs in HOK’s history. Carl Galioto serves as HOK’s president.[11] Hoisington and Klumpp Williams succeeded Bill Hellmuth, founder George Hellmuth’s nephew, who was president of the firm from 2004 to 2016 and CEO from 2016 until his passing in 2023. Prior to Bill Hellmuth, Patrick MacLeamy, served as HOK’s CEO from 2003 to 2016, and chairman since 2012.[12] MacLeamy succeeded HOK Chairman Bill Valentine when he retired after 50 years with the firm.

Innovation and sustainable design

In 1983, HOK introduced HOK Draw, computer-aided drafting software products that specialized in conceptual architectural design. In the early 2000s, HOK began using Building Information Modeling (BIM) to streamline the design and construction process.[13]

In September 2008, HOK announced an alliance with the Biomimicry Group, co-founded by Janine Benyus.[14] In 2010, HOK and energy and daylighting consultant The Weidt Group completed design of Net Zero Court, a 170,735-square-foot, market-rate, zero-emissions class A commercial office building in St. Louis.[15]

In 2013, HOK and Biomimicry 3.8 released the Genius of Biome report, a textbook for how to apply biomimicry design principles,[16] and a year later in 2014, ORO Editions published "HOK Tall Buildings", a 300-page book exploring the design of the contemporary high-rise.[17]

Publications

  • Mendler, Sandra; Odell, William (2000). The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design. New York Weinheim: Wiley. ISBN 9780471379065. OCLC 45059599.

Selected projects

References

  1. ↑ "About". HOK.
  2. 1 2 3 "Anatomy of a Giant: HOK". Building Design + Construction. 11 August 2010. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  3. ↑ Chu, Jeff (2009-04-01). "The Biggest-and Newest-Name in Sports Stadiums: Populous". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  4. ↑ "HOK headquarters and office locations".
  5. ↑ "The Green Urban Office". Metropolis. 2007-01-01. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  6. ↑ Nalewicki, Jennifer (January 20, 2014). "BBG-BBGM Joins HOK to Form Global Hospitality Leader". Interior Design Magazine.
  7. ↑ Staff (June 23, 2008) "Uncertain Economy Pushes Design Firms To Diversify Their Portfolios" Engineering News-Record
  8. ↑ "HOK completes acquisition of 360 Architecture". PanStadia & Arena Management. January 14, 2015.
  9. ↑ "HOK and USL launch stadium development initiative". Stadia. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
  10. ↑ Timpano, Andrea. "HOK Appoints Co-CEOs". ARCHITECT. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  11. ↑ "Executive Moves". Crain's New York Business. Crain Communications Inc. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  12. ↑ "Bill Hellmuth named HOK's new CEO". Building Design + Construction. BDC Network. 20 April 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  13. ↑ Staff (January 30, 2007) "BIM at HOK", AEC Magazine January 30, 2007.
  14. ↑ Merchant, Brian (September 22, 2009) "HOK and Biomimicry Guild Forge Alliance for Bio-Inspired Design Excellence" Archived 2011-10-25 at the Wayback Machine TreeHugger
  15. ↑ Valentine, Bill (October 2010) "Net Zero: Two global design firms issue a call to action and lead by example" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Contract
  16. ↑ Badore, Margaret (June 20, 2013) "Genius of Biome Report: A Biomimicry Primer", TreeHugger
  17. ↑ Staff (May 1, 2014) "HOK Tall Buildings",ORO Editions
  18. ↑ "Lee F. Mindel Tours the St. Louis Priory Chapel". Architectural Digest. 2014-01-31. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  19. ↑ "UNION STATION, CENTRE GIVE ST. LOUIS A SHOT IN THE ARCH". Chicago Tribune. 15 September 1985. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  20. ↑ cmorris (2016-08-15). "Independence Temple | Zahner — Innovation and Collaboration to Achieve the Incredible". Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  21. ↑ "Gallery of Trading "Should" for "Could": Opening up Debate on the Obama Library Design - 2". ArchDaily. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  22. 1 2 3 "Who are the architects?". barcaacademy.fcbarcelona.com. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  23. ↑ "Logan Airport Becomes Home to World's First LEED-Certified Terminal". Facilitiesnet. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  24. ↑ "HOK Sport". www.architectmagazine.com. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  25. ↑ "HOK Completes Acquisition of 360 Architecture". www.businesswire.com. 2015-01-13. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  26. ↑ team, Code8. "Carnival House". HILSON MORAN. Retrieved 2022-04-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  27. ↑ "Metlife Stadium". www.architectmagazine.com. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  28. ↑ "The Dalí Museum / HOK". ArchDaily. 2011-01-13. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  29. ↑ "Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower - The Skyscraper Center". www.skyscrapercenter.com. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  30. ↑ "Baku Flame Towers / HOK". ArchDaily. 2014-08-21. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  31. ↑ "BBC New Broadcasting House / HOK & MacCormac Jamieson Prichard + Sheppard Robson". ArchDaily. 2013-06-25. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  32. ↑ "Porsche North America Experience Center and Headquarters / HOK". ArchDaily. 2016-05-23. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  33. ↑ Brown, Steve (November 6, 2013). "Perot Buys Downtown Dallas Corner, Hints at Grand Plans". Dallas Morning News.
  34. ↑ "hok.com: Orlando Magic and AdventHealth Open New Training Center and Clinic". hok.com. HOK. August 31, 2023. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to HOK.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.