Week 4

The past week was very basic. I spent a portion of time on our intern project. This past week in particular, we focused on more dry details and came up with typicals for each of the programmatic spaces. We’re also working on getting pricing for some of the items, such as the green roofing system and some water collection barrels. We also worked on a phasing plan. Because of the budget, we will not be able to complete all of the necessary items at first. So we have come up with 3 stages for expansion.

As a part of the intern program, HOK has put together weekly coffee talks which are on Thursday. This past Thursday, Sarah, the founder of HOK Impact, came to talk with us about the scope of this new pro-bono arm of HOK. Impact recently finished construction of an orphanage in Haiti. Next week, Impact will head up our diversity week. Sarah inspired me with thoughts on the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) and how this can start to transform our businesses and our world.

Ekin (far right) and some of the design team at our outing

Person of the Week: Ekin is originally from Turkey and is new to HOK. She speaks three languages and is gorgeous and funny. As a part of the strategic accounts and planning group, Ekin asks all the questions for pre-design and puts together strategies for workplace planning, making the designers job much more informed.

HOK markets mainly through online media, namely HOK.com. HOK.com just got a facelift in the recent months. The website revamp had in interest in increasing viewing pleasure. A key point was making a complex website that would be compatible with smart phones and tablets. Also, the website encourages users to stay on the website longer by adding small tabs on Thought Leadership and Design. This prevents user from coming finding what they were looking for and getting off. They end up learning what they intended because of a good structure and even more as a result of the new features.

HOK engages and contracts jobs in all fields. When trying to win a project, HOK has thousands of past project examples to pull from. Fields of particular specialization are healthcare, specialty labs, sustainable structures, and corporate. Accounting is handled in-house. Much of accounting is done through an online database, which links all computers together. Each project is assigned a project number, organized by year. Every time a designer incurs a fee associated with a project they bill to that project number. Our time sheets work in the same way.



Comments

[MBR]

The process you are engaged in with HOK is quite rich. The revelation of the pro bono arm of HOK is what you have been seeking in a firm. HOK's approach to marketing and online engagement is impressive. Our program has been pushing to become more savvy in the digital world, and firms like HOK will appreciate the effort students and educators make in becoming better collaborators and innovators in this area. Just keeping abreast of the new ways of communicating and sharing knowledge online is challenging. Thank you for doing a great job sharing the details and making clear how all this works within HOK. Also, thanks for introducing Ekin.