People

Warm Culture. Cool Work.

We use the word “culture” a lot around here. But we don’t use it lightly.

We think the warm, friendly culture in our studios—each with its own local vibe—is pretty special. We’re a highly collaborative group of people who enjoy working together and are generous about sharing our knowledge, research and innovations. We think of ourselves as a global network of designers made up of small teams of friends working together to solve complex problems.

During our design processes we engage people from many cultures, both from within our firm and the local community. These diverse backgrounds broaden our vision and feed our strengths.

Finally, we want our work to matter. Our goal is for the spaces and buildings we create to shape the cultures of our clients and the community.

HOK Impact

“Using design to make a difference.” That’s the mission of HOK Impact, a group of volunteers from each HOK studio who lead our approach to social responsibility and empowering our communities.

One of HOK’s core values always has been that we care about the people and places our work touches. HOK Impact serves as a lens for addressing the social, environmental and economic impact of this work.

HOK Impact supports our people’s efforts to give back by providing pro bono professional services, organizing participation in community service events, and supporting groups that make a difference in the cities where we live and work.

Diversity Advisory Council

HOK’s Diversity Advisory Council is made up of volunteers from across our studios, reflecting the firm’s rich diversity of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, experience, expertise and geography. The group’s mission is to promote an inclusive work environment and create a culture in which all our people can thrive. Co-chairs Shiva Mendez, Kimberly Dowdell and Brad Liebman provide the overall vision for the Council and support each HOK office’s local efforts to enhance diversity and inclusiveness.

The Council’s activities include:
—Promoting staff discussions on leadership and equity.
—Facilitating HOK’s Diversity x Design scholarship programs for BIPOC design students.
—Establishing a task force to promote firmwide mentoring.
—Conducting a biennial employee career and opportunity survey.
—Supporting organizations dedicated to expanding diversity within the profession, including the National Organization of Minority Architects and the ACE Mentor Program.

HOK Tapestry

HOK Tapestry enables our firm to improve our project partnerships and foster greater equity within the AEC industry. The online portal (hoktapestry.com) allows businesses seeking to collaborate with us to upload their profile and qualifications directly into the database we use to assemble project teams.

Through HOK Tapestry, we are expanding our registry of potential partners and bringing greater diversity to our project teams. Businesses registered with HOK Tapestry are also invited to participate in programming designed to help our partner firms build capacity and expand future business opportunities.

Emerging Talent Summits

HOK is committed to developing the next generation of designers. One way we do this is through our Emerging Talent Summits.

Emerging Talent Summits invite up-and-coming design leaders from across HOK to attend regional, in-person meetings. At these summits, young designers have the opportunity to:

—Get to know their peers from across the firm.
—Inspire each other by sharing their latest work and ideas.
—Hear from HOK senior designers and guest speakers.
—Provide the HOK Design Board with recommendations for improving HOK’s design culture.
—Tour HOK-designed projects and other architecturally significant buildings and spaces.

Check out scenes from our 2023 Emerging Talent Summits.

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Our Research Program

At HOK, research-driven innovation forms the core of our practice. Our research program, open to all employees, provides financial support for groundbreaking ideas that have the potential to change the world.

Recent research initiatives include:

—Developing the HOK STREAM parametric modeling and optimization tool, enabling us to deliver high-end architectural and engineering designs significantly faster than traditional design processes allow.

—Enhancing our generative AI, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) tools to revolutionize the way we visualize, collaborate and communicate design ideas with clients and stakeholders.

—Tackling embodied carbon in structural systems through innovative techniques and life cycle assessments (LCAs), aiming to optimize structural choices and set ambitious reduction targets.

—Conducting the DataRise research study to address urban commercial real estate vacancies by proposing the conversion of vacant office spaces into state-of-the-art facilities tailored for the AI and data industries.

—Developing the Scrum parametric design tool to revolutionize stadium and arena design by empowering rapid prototyping, providing real-time revenue modeling and offering extensive analytical capabilities.

—Collaborating with industry experts to address the environmental impact of aviation through advanced air mobility, examining infrastructure needs for airports that support electric aircraft and full airport electrification.

—Helping cities prepare for sea-level rise with equitable, resilient strategies for the built environment.

—Integrating equity and inclusion principles into all aspects of our design processes and solutions.

What sets our program apart is that our active design practitioners conceive and carry out the research themselves. This approach allows us to quickly apply our innovations to real-world challenges and push the boundaries of design.

View a video about our research program.