Designing a World-Class Architecture Firm

The People, Stories, and Strategies Behind HOK

Patrick MacLeamy

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781119685302
• eBook ISBN: 9781119685432
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Professional Practice in Architecture

O ffers architects and creative services professionals exclusive insights and strategies for success from the former CEO of HOK.

Designing a World Class Architecture Firm: The People, Stories and Strategies Behind HOK tells the history of one of the largest design firms in the world and draws lessons from it that can help other architects, interior designers, urban planners and creative services professionals grow bigger or better. Former HOK CEO Patrick MacLeamy shares the revolutionary strategies HOK's founders deployed to create a brand-new type of architecture firm. He pulls no punches, revealing the triple crisis that almost bankrupted HOK and describes how any firm can survive and thrive.

Designing a World Class Architecture Firm tells the inside story of many of HOK's most iconic buildings, including the National Air and Space Museum, Moscone Convention Center, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the Houston Galleria and the reimagined LaGuardia Airport. Each chapter conveys lessons learned from HOK's successes —and failures— including:

• The importance of diversifying to depression-and-recession-proof your firm
• The benefit of organizing your firm around specialized leaders and project types
• The difference between leading and managing your people
• The value of simple financial metrics to ensure your firm's health and profitability
• The "run toward trouble" strategy which prevents problems from ballooning

MacLeamy delivers his advice via inspirational stories such as how HOK survived when its home office in St. Louis went up in flames and humorous stories, like the time an HOK executive was mistaken for royalty on a trip to Saudi Arabia. In this tell-all guide, the driven architecture or design professional will find the tools needed to evolve or grow any firm.

Index

• NOTE: Page references in italics refer to figures and photos.

• A
• Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), 232–234, 233
• accounting. See finances
• Adams, Ansel, 10
• Advance Technology Group (ATG), 195, 206–207
• Alcoa building (Los Angeles), 72
• Allen, Michael, 18
• American Institute of Architects (AIA)
  • 2030 Commitment in energy use reduction, 232
  • effort curve presentation, 193
  • Kassabaum as Council of Fellow chancellor, 75
  • Kassabaum as president of, xxi, 28
• Anchorage Federal Office Building project, 52
• Apple headquarters (Cupertino, California), 128, 129
• Architect's Journal, 150
• Architectural Record magazine, 235
• Arctic Design, 51
• Arizona prison system study, 55
• Asian expansion, 98–99, 101–107, 127. See also growth and expansion
• Ask Me Anything meetings, 209–210, 212, 244
• ATG (Advance Technology Group), 195, 206–207
• AT&T, 140
• AutoDesk, 135, 140–142, 189, 193, 206
• aviation specialty
  • Asia projects, 107
  • dispute over, 171
  • firm-wide market practices and, 120
  • as major HOK specialty, 241
  • Saudi Arabia projects, 81, 87, 90–91, 127, 131–132
  • teams...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Coming to HOK
• SECTION ONE: THE FOUNDERS, 1955–1982
• SECTION TWO: THE OBATA ERA, 1982–1993
• SECTION THREE: THE SINCOFF ERA, 1993–2002
• SECTION FOUR: THE MACLEAMY ERA, 2003–2016
• Afterword: HOK Today
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Index
• End User License Agreement