As we've been working on this blog, we keep seeing the same few search terms come up: workplace trends, workplace 2010, innovations in workplace, etc.  To help answer some of these questions, we thought we would reach out to some of our colleagues, clients and friends and ask them about some of their workplace experiences.  Today is the first post in that series, and features HOK Washington, DC's own Amy Fabry.  What is your current role?  I am a Senior Interior Designer in the Washington, DC studio. What would you say are current “trends” when it comes to the workplace?  Cram as many people in as possible.  Seriously, many of our corporate clients recognize that there is a large portion of their employees that do not need a dedicated desk or private office, so they are moving towards a shared open office environment where workstations are not assigned to any person in particular.  ... read more+comments

  Interesting conceptual project from textile designer Celine Marcq: reactive wallcovering that abstractly visualizes energy use. The idea is that your wall can help indicate how much electricity you are using, ideally making us all more conscious in general. This would be especially helpful for those people who have bad habits of leaving everything plugged in. The ambient light is a reminder that even though something isn't turned on, if it's plugged in it's still pulling in electricity. Gets rid of the whole "out of sight, out of mind" mentaility that gets us in trouble in oh so many instances. Monitoring and displaying energy isn't necessarily a brand new concept. Several quality companies are leading the effort to track energy usage. My colleague David Ivey recently posted on HOK Life about measures we're taking in our Chicago office, implementing  Lutron Quantum and EcoSystem to monitor and display energy usage. These measures have helped our Chicago office be recognized as one of the ... read more+comments

One of the great things about our Atlanta office location is accessibility:  10 minute walk from my house to the train, 15 minute ride, and 5 more minutes to the office.  From there, when hunger strikes (and I didn’t’ bring my lunch) it’s only a 10 minute walk to…Paris?  A few weeks back my good friend and fellow architect, Luca, invited me to lunch.  “I know this great little French bistro – you’ll enjoy it!”  “Oui!” I accepted and we met on Peachtree Street – the main thoroughfare in downtown Atlanta.  It was a hot, humid, Wednesday afternoon and the typical crowd of business people, tourists and conventioneers were crowding the steamy sidewalks looking for shelter and a cold glass of sweet tea.  “Which way?” I asked.  With a nod and an outstretched hand gesturing north in a way that only a true Roman can do, we started our journey. Now, I’ve ... read more+comments

Every summer our office is the drop off location for a CSA, a Community Supported Agriculture program.  Participants, about a dozen of us here, pay the local farmer(s) ahead of time and come June or so we get a box of glowingly beautiful produce every week.  Sustainability is a guiding principle in our firm and this is one way we can support both area farmers and our own heath.  Plus it really brightens a person's day to see those colors, almost as good as sunlight.  If you want to learn more about CSA's the USDA has a good page of links and finding tools, like Bioodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, LocalHarvest, and many more.  The family farm that brings us our wonderful produce here in St. Louis is Lee Farms.  What do you think - would this work at your office? ... read more+comments

The Builders Association is a leading trade association serving the commercial construction industry in Chicago. They are a reliable source to keep up on relevant issues in the local construction community. I was recently asked to write an article for their June newsletter to discuss how the Architecture and Design community is viewing the current state of the market, what firms are doing to weather the economic storm and what market sectors look to have growth in 2010. Check out the article here: School's In ... read more+comments

Today Angie Earlywine, HOK Senior Workplace Strategist, was featured on KMOX Radio Total Information Program to share key findings from IFMA's Distributed Work Research Report.  Talk show hosts Debbie Monterrey and Dan Gray talk with Angie about how businesses are decreasing their need for office space. Click here to listen to the podcast - Too Much Office Space ... read more+comments

I know, as a blogger on multiple sites and avid Facebooker/LinkedIn-er, I should be totally into the Twitter phenomenon.  I just haven't latched on.  Yes, I signed up (almost 2 years ago), but I don't think I've tweeted more than three times.  And maybe read other people's tweets five times. Maybe it's because my phone is a little on the old side and I haven't botthered to download an app.  Or maybe it's because their web interface isn't so great.  Or the people I'm following aren't that interesting (j/k @HOKNetwork - I love your workplace tweets!)?  I ran across an interesting article: Inactivity Matters: 83 Percent of Online Friends are Fakes.  This post talks about how many others are in my predicament...and that Twitter maybe isn't such a good measure of influence, particularly when compared to sites like LinkedIn and Facebook where there is mutual agreement on the connection.  Interesting... Do you tweet?  For ... read more+comments

When driving to the office, overtime everyone develops their own set of best practices and habits which help streamline arriving and leaving from the office. Getting to the office without any traffic issues and or having a stress free drive helps start the day on the right foot. But this week i've had two interesting incidents with driver x vying for the same spot which left me irked to start the day. I'm not one of those people who park in the first open space. I've strategically picked out specific spots to where i want to park. I have my option A, B and C-they all consist parking next to walls to minimize scratches and dings. With my option A spot, it's a friendly battle ground to get to the spot first, but I sware, if car x arrives the same time and i'm right behind, the other driver x will deliberately take option A spot. Normally, if the car x arrives ... read more+comments

My workstation has been getting very messy lately. I'm going through the CA (Construction Administration) phase on a project and my desk has suddenly been bombarded with stacks of paperwork, rolls of drawings and product samples. I've started a bad habit (one of my pet peeves) of putting junk on the floor next to my workstation. I HATE crap on the floor. Drives me nuts. Why can't there be a perfect little spot to store everything? I keep thinking "this is just temporary. No biggie. Once we get through this phase of the project my desk will be back to it's normal, organized, peacful state". But then I've been noticing others around me also have this habit of keeping stuff on the floor next to their desk. For some people it's not temporary. It's a horrible way of life. On the one hand I can chalk it up to the creative process (we're designers, ... read more+comments

The way a space communicates a basic message suggests a lot about the overall design.  Were the details well-considered, or were these last-minute items forgotten?  Is there a clear concept throughout the space?  Is the guest experience welcoming?  Will you be back? The following are some noteworthy restroom signs I’ve captured over the past few weeks. ... read more+comments