Our Great Experiment

FORWARD

BY MIKE STERN

As this situation drew longer one of the few daily pleasures I got was reading Riccardo’s Great Experiment e-mails. And the last one talked about “when people look back and study this time, they will ask why such a smart civilization acted so dumb.”

HOK didn’t act dumb. We faced the challenges that were unceremoniously dumped on us, made the necessary adjustments and continued to deliver outstanding design services on time and profitably.

That’s not dumb. That’s smart.

But Riccardo’s message is not lost on me. People are still avoiding getting the vaccines that could finally put an end to this menace. Why? Politics seems like the right answer and that is DUMB!

So thank you Riccardo for keeping us informed, enlightened, sometimes agitated, and almost always entertained. I hope to see you in the very near future.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO THOSE WHO ALSO SHARED:

Nadya Alshaweesh

Mark Banholzer

Michela Bettin Allison Burrell Mary Kate Cassidy Kimberly Dowdell Mike Goetz

Flor Hernandez Sue Kim Alex Kuchinskas

Jeff Lancaster Brooke Manning

Mo Martinson

Paul Maute Daniel Meeker Morgan Murphy Bethany Newman Hyeonhee Oh-Kuchinskas

Cindy Om Aneirin Owens Abigail Scott Mandy Singh Mike Stern Sebastian Torres Kelsey Trepka Maggie Van Edmen

MARCH

DAY 001

TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020 AT 09:33AM

Good Morning Everyone,

This is the first day of our grand experiment (!) which poses the question:

Can we work remotely while maintaining design quality and project schedules; connections to clients and consultants; and, effective collaboration with our teammates?

I’m intent on demonstrating to the world that we can do this and, in the process, make HOK Chicago the pride of our colleagues and the envy our competitors.

Stay in touch with each other. Take Good Care, Riccardo

002

Good morning everyone,

All things considered, Day One of our odyssey went well.

Some of you might have experienced slower than normal network connections yesterday but by mid-morning the everything was performing well. Make sure to check out James Vandezande’s email this morning (and Dave Ivey’s advice) regarding who should (and should not) be using the VPN – which directly impacts the speed the of network. I expect that things are going to be a bit choppy for the next several days as we adjust to our new work day but, don’t worry about that, take time find your own particular rhythm.

My day started at 800am and consisted of multiple conference calls: our weekly Executive Committee call; a call with the firm’s Managing Principals; a call with the Houston/Dallas office to review their business development and marketing; and a meeting with Sport/KC to discuss a newly awarded (!) project. My first break came around 300pm at which time I stopped and took a shower. Later as I called around to some of you, I was impressed with your business-as-usual attitude.

Stay in touch. Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 003

THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020 AT 09:40AM

Good Morning everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well. It seems that we were still working through some network speed issues yesterday afternoon – mostly due to factors outside of HOK. If that was not the case for you and you need something at home, please contact Dave Ivey (if you haven’t already) to see how we can help. It’s understandable that our internet/cable providers’ systems are being taxed. They are getting used to the new normal, as well.

From what I’ve heard from you and from others around the firm, everyone is getting on with their work. Hong Kong office, which had already gone back to work, had to decamp once again because someone in their building tested positive. It’s a fairly small building for Hong Kong, but besides HOK, it also counts CNN as a major tenant.

Later today you will see in your Outlook at 430pm that I have scheduled a short, 30 minute all-staff call. I know meeting by WebEx is not an ideal way to take questions, hear comments or express concerns, so please send those beforehand and we can address them on the call.

Thanks and take good care,

Riccardo

“

A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose — a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve.”

DAY 004

FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2020 AT 09:45AM

Good Morning everyone,

I want to thank everyone for joining our all-hands call yesterday afternoon. I know all 102 of you tuned-in mainly due to a combination of curiosity and anxiety. Or possibly because you had heard about Dave’s stuffed…ferret?

Be that as it may, it made me feel a deep sense of kinship with you as we all do our best to navigate these unprecedented times. The weekly call will serve as a touchstone to share what we know - and what we don’t - so you can put that information to work in your daily lives. To that end, please continue to send me questions or concerns so I can aim the conversation at the heart of what’s on your mind.

When I was a young architect working in Mexico City, I often toiled away in the studio without knowing or understanding what was going on around me or, more importantly, why. The leadership of that firm didn’t share much. As a result, I was in the dark about most things and so the narrative I made up in my head was not only incorrect but it caused me unnecessary anxiety.

After I left that company and took on more leadership positions, I made a point to share as much information as possible because, I figured, it’s always better knowing that not. So, occasionally I will overshare but it’s with the best intentions – to keep us informed so we can focus on the tasks at hand and move this great company forward.

Thanks Again. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 007

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2020 AT 11:22AM

Good Morning everyone,

I trust everyone got a chance to rest a bit over the weekend. Today marks the first full week of our Great Experiment. By all accounts from you and from your colleagues from across the firm, last week went well. In spite of a few technology glitches, the vast majority of us were able to advance our work and stay connected to each other all while attending to our new office mates like children, partners, parents and pets.

This week, the Management Committee will wrap up calculating and reporting our earnings (see below) for the month of March. We had a strong January and February but, as they say, past performance is no guarantee of future results. We will also take a hard look at our backlog (signed contract amounts) to estimate how much we plan on earning over the next several months. To date, only two small projects haves stopped: United Airlines and Memphis Airport but we will keep a watchful eye on all of our projects/clients for changes. Finally, we will be revising our 2020 Business Plan since our assumptions about new commissions were based on our best thinking in December.

For those of you not familiar, earning is an important concept in our business and is often misunderstood. In a nut shell, our earnings are based directly on how much we’ve advanced a project in a particular month. For example, if we say a phase was 50% complete last month and this month we completed up to 75%, our earnings are 25%. So, we report as earned 25% of our fee ($) for that phase. This should not be confused with invoiced (how much we billed the client for) or collected (how much money we actually received). Hopefully, we have spent less than the earned amount which results in a profit - another misunderstood concept but I’ll leave that one for another day.

Talk soon. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 008

TUESDAY, MARCH 24 2020 AT 09:37AM

Hello everyone,

I thought I would share with you some stats regarding our efficacy working from home. ATG monitors our usage and reports the following for last week, 16-20 March: we were only slightly (-14%) less efficient than we had been working in the office.

1. Revit Syncs: The average number of times Revit gets “synced to central” ranges from 4,600 to 5,500 per week. Last week, we peaked at 4,719. (-14.2% over peak).

2. Revit Starts: On average Revit.exe is launched 750 time per day. Last week, the average was 650. (-13.3%)

3. Newforma Data Transfer: Another indicator is the amount of data being transferred in Newforma. The monthly average thru 2019 was 386GB. The projected monthly average based on one week of data (March 16-20) is 330GB. (-14.5%)

It’s early but this is very encouraging news. Even though we went through the transition from office-to-home, we were able to pick up where we left off and carry on. Very impressive!

Stay connected with each other. Take good care.

Riccardo

DAY 009

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2020 AT 09:31AM

Good morning everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well and by now have settled into a rhythm at home. A few tidbits of information from around the firm:

New York has been the hardest hit. Chris Laul, Marketing Principal for NY, NJ and Philadelphia says that the streets are deserted and the hospitals are visibly straining to keep up. Ironically, a recent new commission – years in the making – for a new New York State Public Health lab has been put on hold. Our Construction Administration actives are being done from home, including for LaGuardia Airport as they push to open the next phase in April.

The University of Michigan is considering adding additional isolation beds to our project in Ann Arbor. The contractor Barton Mallow who was working on the mass excavation has demobilized as the State of Michigan is on a shelter in place order. In several state I have spoken with, Illinois, Missouri and California, there are different definitions of who/what is exempt from shelter order because they provide “essential services”.

Our University of Indiana medical center project is considering accelerating the project. We believe (as do we) that they could save construction time and money.

Aviation work across the firm continues, including our Terminal 5 project. Airports are deemed critical facilities however the weakness of the airlines is casting a pall over the entire industry. The general feeling is that these projects are implemented with the long term view in mind and (most) don’t react to shocks to the market.

Our sports clients are also asking to us to study speeding up design and construction to take advantage of empty arenas and university campuses. Bill Johnson from Sport says that hygiene will figure big in the work on the boards especially the entire way we display and serve food at events.

I’ve got to run but I’ll share more later. Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 010

THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2020 AT 12:21PM

Hello everyone,

We’re in the double digits – Day 10! My day has become pretty much one long conference call. Ironically, we are staying more connected than ever at a time when we are the furthest away.

I get that. Everyone is trying especially hard to replace the accidental conversations that occurred so naturally in the office just a few weeks ago.

Or is that just my perception? I suspect that for many of you, you had already replaced the in-person banter with some kind of social media a long time ago. The bursts of laughter on two sides of the office at the same time was a dead giveaway. It turns out that you were actually training for this.

Who knew.

I am impressed and grateful that you continue to demonstrate that you are responsible, collaborative and accessible - to each other. That bodes very well for all of us.

Thanks and have a great day. Talk later.

Riccardo

DAY 011

FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2020 AT 12:00PM

Good morning everyone,

As you contemplate your weekend plans, please resist the temptation to gather in public places and take note of newly restricted areas where you live like parks, beaches and trails in the City of Chicago. We all must do our part to break the chain of transmission of this deadly virus. But don’t despair. Join Lindy and Reanna this afternoon for a Digital Happy Hour to toast our extraordinary response to these unprecedented events.

On Monday, the HOK Board of Directors will meet to survey the state of play across the firm and, if necessary, consider additional measures we might take to ensure the ongoing vitality of our business while keeping you (and your families) out of harm’s way. Spoiler: I would plan on us all working from home for the foreseeable future. As always, if you are curious about that meeting, feel free to call or write board members in Chicago: Peter, Jeff, Terry or myself. This is your firm, so ask away!

Finally, yesterday afternoon we held our second all-hands meeting. Only 96 people attended so I’ve become self-conscious about I’m losing my audience! Seriously, if you have any ideas on how I might improve or would like to hear things that we did not cover, just let me know.

Let’s finish the week strong.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 014

MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2020 AT 01:23PM

Good afternoon everyone,

This morning, Peter, Jeff, Terry and I participated in the board of directors’ meeting. These meetings normally happen monthly but we added today’s call in order to keep our pulse on what’s happening around the firm. We heard from each of the offices and markets.

Everyone has reported that our transition to WFH has gone off without a hitch. That’s not to say that it’s been easy or natural: those who suddenly have young children around or who are taking care of family members are having the hardest time adjusting. In addition, the distinction between work days and weekend days is increasingly disappearing. So, we need to be mindful of what it means for others WFH. (Will, sorry for calling you 12 times this weekend.)

As the crisis unfolds around us, each office is being effected to a greater or lesser degree. All have had projects stop and construction sites closed. Corporate, commercial and hospitality clients seem to be the hardest hit but not evenly across the firm. Some contractors are speeding up in anticipation of supply chain interruptions. And while some healthcare and S+T clients/projects are understandably slowing, others want to make changes to projects currently in design, build out shell space, re-start hospitals that were recently shuttered or, as was the case this weekend – design and build temporary facilities for the Army Corp of Engineers. HOK is in the middle of all of it.

Finally, in the last two weeks, we had 19 video interviews, were awarded 29 projects and signed 17 contracts. Business, like life, goes on.

Riccardo

DAY 016

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 01, 2020 AT 10:35AM

Hello everyone,

Yesterday, we met to welcome new officers* to our ranks and congratulate the newly promoted**. I took that opportunity to reiterate our goals as a practice. It’s a good thing too, because in the midst of all this, they are easy to forget. Here’s they are, suitable for framing:

1. Be recognized as a top design firm that is consistently called upon and who win against highly respected firms.

2. Exploit the design potential in every project and achieve a high level of technical quality in our delivery.

3. Be selective in BD/marketing by identifying clients and projects that will raise our design profile and build our practice.

4. Increase repeat business with key clients and cross-sell multiple services.

5. Create a stable, vibrant design practice by maintaining diversity in project type and location.

6. Maintain a healthy backlog which drives consistent fee and profit levels.

7. Create the most desirable place to work to attract and retain the best talent.

Also, I mentioned one of my favorite books, Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman explains our inherent human behavior that drives the economic decisions we all make. He explains the “anchoring effect” - our tendency to be influenced by irrelevant numbers that we happen to be exposed to, and “regression to the mean” - an extreme event is likely to be followed by a less extreme one.

Something useful to think about. Take Care, Riccardo

DAY 017

THURSDAY, APRIL 02, 2020 AT 12:00PM

Good afternoon everyone,

There are a couple of thoughts on my mind that I wanted share today:

First, news may be reaching you that our New York office is making reductions in their staff. I know that this will make real the impact the crisis is having in that part of the country and create some anxiety here at home, too. I understand that completely. But, the best thing we can do is give them their space and stay focused on the considerable amount of work we have here and continue to advance the cause.

Second and on a lighter note, it’s been interesting peering over your shoulder into your homes these past few weeks. Ironically, seeing you in two dimensions has given me a more well-rounded view of you the person. Peter likes cranes. Karen likes cats. Jeff likes to walk. The danger of course is that I become a little too informal with each of you as we sit in our living rooms and work or chat. So, I have to remind myself of something my mother would say every time we visited someone’s home, “You’d better be on your best behavior”. I’ll try.

Finally, one of the unexpected pleasures for me over the last few weeks has been the time I’ve been able to spend with my family, especially my daughter who we thought was fast spinning out of our home orbit on her way to graduation then a new job. But she’s come back to us now and that’s been a silver lining which gives me hope that, in spite of the news, good things can and will come from all of this.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 018

FRIDAY, APRIL 03, 2020 AT 10:50AM

Good Morning everyone,

Are we there yet? This is the end of our third week of WFH and my best guess is that we’re going to be here for a while. The State of Virginia has put a temporary ‘stay at home order’ in effect until June 10th so, I’m putting my chips on summer before some relaxation of the restrictions. So get comfortable.

Meanwhile, we continue to analyze the impact all this is having on our business and today we’re going to submit our revised fee forecast for 2020. Architects are notoriously bad at predicting future revenue because we tend to be overly optimistic i.e. “…no really, we’re going to have a signed contact today!”. But thankfully we have Terry, Mike and others to keep us honest or at least temper our confidence. In a typical year, our accuracy decreases with time such that the further we look out the less accurate our fee predictions are. Checks out - fees in the short term are made up mostly of projects we have versus later in the year when the fees come from projects we have yet to sign up.

Bottom line: we believe (today) our revenue this year will be down 10-15% from our original 2020 plan. With a little luck, we could do better than that. With a little bad luck…well…let’s not go there. To paraphrase Louis Pasteur, luck favors the prepared. We’re prepared.

Take care and get some rest this weekend.

Riccardo

DAY 021

MONDAY, APRIL 06, 2020 AT 11:53AM

Good Morning everyone,

Yesterday was truly a day of firsts: my LinkedIn post with the renderings of our O’Hare T5 project received over 1000 views, Carl Galioto praised our QA/QC efforts and Sofia “cut” my hair. But I digress: here’s more on our QA/QC work:

Carl and Tom Bayer are performing QA/QC audits on new projects since October to check for things like the implementation of SmartSheet and QA/ QC flow. The Chicago studio projects that were reviewed were: WPP (not on smartsheet), Tradedesk San Francisco (under 50,000sf category), and University of Michigan CIT (a pilot project for QA/QC and Smartsheet).

Lou lead the presentation along with Joe, Sarah, Roger, Paul, Javier, Jessica, Mike, Alison, Eileen, Alex, Cam, Dallas, and David. Carl was particularly impressed with the work at the University of Michigan which uses Smartsheet to confirm compliance and tracking of the client’s standards and links deviations to documents which confirms direction from the client. Carl said that this was, “just genius”. Thank you, Cam and Stasia! We also demonstrated our use of clash detection and tracking of issues in Smartsheet. Carl will take what he learned from Chicago back to James Vandezande to determine if there is a way to link Solibri directly into Smartsheet as a firm-wide standard.

This is critically important work we are doing because it completes our design intent and contract documents while reducing errors and omissions in the field.

Well done everyone!

Riccardo

DAY 022

TUESDAY, APRIL 07, 2020 AT 11:23AM

Hello everyone,

I thought you might be interested seeing my notes from a meeting with other Managing Principals, specifically regarding the impact the virus is having on marketing:

! The impact and severity on our businesses varies from office to office, from market to market and client to client.

! Interiors and commercial work seems to be the hardest hit. Corporations are stopping interiors projects because they can do so quickly however, architecture projects in the pipeline seem to be continuing without much disruption. Some developers are hunting for bargains as land owners are looking to cash out and local governments are now eager to make deals.

! S+T: bonds that were approved for many of these projects are for specific use only – meaning governments cannot redirect the money towards other needs – calling into question the whether or not these projects will be awarded as originally planned. Same is true for university projects funded by large donations.

! Our A+T projects and major pursuits are moving ahead albeit slower. One airlines believes that the industry will contract 2550%, mirroring what happened after 9/11.

! Justice continues to interview and start new projects although the mega-projects (like in NY, LA, Chicago) have been pushed off for at least next year as governments review their priorities.

! Public Private Partnerships (P3) popular in Canada, UK and increasingly in the US, are struggling to “close” because of the volatility in the financing markets.

! Healthcare market continues to be just as strong as before the virus although. Some clients are looking to adapt our projects to address future increases in infection control and ICU cases. That’s the news. Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 023

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 08, 2020 AT 10:04AM

Good Morning everyone,

Every quarter the AIA organizes a meeting of the Managing Principals of the large firms in Chicago. There’s a fair amount to posturing and alternative facts presented at these meetings, so take everything with a grain of salt. However, this conversation was more candid than usual. Without breaching any confidence, here are few tidbits from yesterday’s call:

! Smith Group’s was first hit on their west coast offices, then east coast and now mid-west. Healthcare work from Northwestern and Advocate are on hold.

! Gensler reported that China work remains strong.

! The China market is strong for CallisonRTKL, too. Developers in the US are repricing GMPs hoping to realize savings in Q3.

! Epstein: Interiors are down. Industrial and utility work is strong. Overseas work has dropped.

! Geottsch: Developers have put their projects on hold. China is busy for them although developers are rethinking the retail. The One Chicago project is working two shifts.

! Valerio: Billings and productivity are good. Higher education, aviation, student residential and hospitality are all down. No idea how to do civic engagement meetings and the permitting process has slowed.

! Smith Gill: Developer work has stopped or slowed. The US federal government announced loans to small business but they don’t know the criteria or how to disburse funds.

In general:

! WFH has been successful

! Several firms are speaking to their landlords about reducing their rent in the short term, possibly by extending the lease term.

! Cash flow is a problem for at least one firm. They have cut salaries and are working a reduced week.

! Most firms have deferred or canceled raises. All have saved money not traveling.

! The goal of producing PPE using 3D printers has not proved feasible.

! Some firms are beginning to think about how to return to work, possibly by staggering days teams work in the office.

That was the general tone of the meeting.

Finally, for those of us not observing, please be mindful that Passover will begin at sunset (7:07pm).

Take good care, Riccardo

This is the day that it really hit me…..we’re going to be doing this for a while. I wrote myself a post-it note that went onto my monitor; “Stay Positive. You Got This.” It was a tough day yet reassuring to know that similar thought processes were happening in the minds of my colleagues.

Interestingly the same two sentiments (“We’re going to be doing this for a while” and “Stay Positive, You Got This”) both frequently come to mind in my marathon training. I hope that at the finish line of the pandemic and a marathon, that everyone can reflect on the extraordinary accomplishment and endurance that both require.

Hello everyone,

There are days like today when the news seems like fiction and the statistics so abstract that I sometimes think that our corner of the world might somehow be spared. But I know better. I know we’re not staffing emergency rooms, walking a beat or counseling the grieving but I do know that we’re right in the middle of it and doing important work.

The middle of the marathon is in some ways the toughest part because the excitement from the start is long gone and the adrenalin hasn’t kicked in for the finish. You’re just plotting along. Head down. Keeping pace. Listening to your body. Making slight adjustments.

That’s how I feel today. We have to continue to do our part, putting one foot in front of the other, insignificant as each may seem in the big picture because, in fact, they all add up. I count myself amongst the lucky to be running with you, in this great pack, during this important and historic time.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 025

FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2020 AT 11:07AM

Good Morning everyone,

Early next week, Peter, Jeff and I will be participating in the annual Board of Directors’ meeting which kicks-off with a report to all shareholders’ on Tuesday. The shareholders’ meeting is held every April after the previous year’s audit is completed. There are approximately 220 shareholders in the firm, including a fair share in Chicago.

In addition to reviewing our financial performance (fees, profit and share price), the shareholders vote on the six member (or slate) Executive Committee. All board members serve a one year term. Bill Hellmuth will also report on our progress on our firmwide initiatives in design (awards), sustainability (AIA 2030) and diversity. After that, the board (35 people) will meet to discuss all aspects of our practice including the impact of virus on our 2020 Business Plan.

We’ll follow up next week with the highlights from those meetings. Meanwhile, do your best to enjoy Easter, Passover and/or just the weekend.

Take Care, Riccardo

028

Good Morning everyone,

I hope you got a break this weekend from a long week of WFH and the relentless news cycle. For the first time, we watched Easter mass on TV, live-streamed from St. Monica’s – the church where Sofia-Marie made her First Communion and down the street from where we lived in LA. (If you’re going to watch church of TV, why not from somewhere that brings back good memories, right?). Some things are just better in person and Easter mass is one of them but, believe it or not, watching on TV gave me a little bit of peace.

Speaking to an empty church the Monsignor kept coming back to the phrase, “a spoonful of hope” – as in, to offer or to receive hope It reminded me of that old saying, “ a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down”. I’m optimistic that we can all find something good every day to keep us moving forward and temper the news around us.

Have a great week. Take Care, Riccardo

DAY 029

TUESDAY,

APRIL 14, 2020 AT 09:45AM

Good Morning everyone,

Our annual board meetings begin today. Threaded in and amongst the normal topics I mentioned last week, we will be keeping a keen an eye on the ‘canary in the coal mine’ – early indication of the impact the virus is having on our industry this year (and beyond) and what we can do to lessen its severity on HOK. We will also look out into the future to discuss what our markets (aviation, healthcare, justice, science+tech, sport, and workplace) might look like in the post-COVID 19 era and when (and how) might we start on the path back to the office.

All important questions that will take more than a few days to sort out. I’m not expecting any major news to come out of our meetings but if there is anything, I’ll let you know.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 030

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2020 AT 08:09AM

Good Morning everyone, Snow Day. See you tomorrow.

Riccardo

DAY 031

THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020 AT 10:07AM

Good Morning everyone,

We completed our board meetings yesterday. The discussions were thoughtful and forward-looking as we grappled with how we can put the things we are learning now to good use in the short term (like firmwide collaboration, use of technology, human behavior, etc.) and to positively impact – perhaps even change - our firm’s trajectory over the long term. We closed by reviewing three outstanding projects - Centre Block (Canadian Parliament), Tianjin City Plaza (350m tall office) and the Calgary Arena. The consensus was that the meetings went well and I for one felt invigorated instead of exhausted like I do normally after these marathon meetings. We’ll talk more about all that later this afternoon during our all-hands call.

What was missing however, and probably the most important part, was the socializing over dinner or drinks. We’ve learned over years of trying that it’s much easier to collaborate with people you know and with whom you have shared experiences. Paul Collins from Hong Kong calls collaboration HOK’s ‘superpower’ – other firms have their ‘powers’ but collaboration is ours. When the stakes are high and we just have to win or in difficult times when you need the Calvary, knowing who’s holding the other end of the rope you’re dangling from is pretty important.

That got me thinking about New York. Right now, we have 179 of our HOK cousins going through an unimaginably difficult time. I got the sense that they could use a reminder that they have distant cousins out west (i.e. beyond New Jersey) pulling for them. So, I want to enlist you in a not-so-random act of kindness – let’s send HOK New York email postcards from each of us. They might be comforted in some way knowing that we’re in this together.

Who knows, you might make a friend. And that might be helpful one day if you find yourself at the end of your rope.

Riccardo

DAY 032

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020 AT 10:02AM

Good Morning everyone,

I want to thank those of you who took a few minutes to reach out to our cousins in New York yesterday. (If you haven’t, there’s still time) After we broke through that hardened New Yorker exterior, I think they were pleased to hear from us and took comfort in knowing that we’re truly all in this together. I course I should have expected that some of you would go above and beyond. The few notes that I saw from Sarah, Dave and Nate for example were really touching and may have set off a bit of competition - I hear that they’re collecting them like baseball cards! Back to business.

In our all-hands call yesterday, Lou reminded us of the work happing around the studio and some of the deliverables we have in front of us. In related news, Lou was complimentary of the progress the teams are making towards documenting these wonderful buildings and interiors to the quality level befitting this firm and great design. That’s high praise from our goalkeeper.

! 17 APR Chief Andrew Isaac - Issued 35% Shell and Core to AAI (submitted yesterday).

! 24 APR O’Hare T5 – CD’s for Owner Review

! 08 MAY UM DR-02 - Issue with Bid for Shell and Core

! Ongoing UM DR-01 – Earth retention, foundation CA efforts: RFI’s, Shop Drawings, and Bulletins. Construction temporarily on hold.

! Ongoing UM DR-03 – Fit-out Team: on-going CD’s (date TBD)

! Ongoing Wayne County – Continuing CA RFI’s and Bulletins. Construction temporarily on hold

! Ongoing Soin – Continuing CA activities and construction

! Ongoing Ogle – Continuation of CA activities and construction

! Ongoing Honeywell Charlotte and Tradedesk (SF)

Finally, please take time for yourself this weekend and step away from the ‘office’ to read a book or walk the dog. In the words of that great philosopher Groucho Marx: “Outside of dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of dog, it’s too dark to read.”

See you Monday, Riccardo

DAY 035

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020 AT 01:41PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

It’s been a busy beginning to the week as we assess the virus’s impact to our industry and continue to make adjustments to HOK to meet our new and evolving reality. Even though the virus is still exacting its toll, there are signs that we are moving to the next phase of the pandemic. This has allowed us to look beyond our immediate station and think about what life at HOK will look like on our journey back to the office.

Our clients are doing the same thing. It’s true that the Interiors market has taken the brunt of the downturn because corporations moved quickly to reassess their business plan and preserve their cash. But those clients are now starting to look beyond the crisis as well and are asking us to advise them on what it will take to re-occupy their offices. This is not a theoretical exercise: what will be good for them will no doubt be good for us. What measures will we recommend to ensure that we all, 1) want to go back to the office and, once there, 2) feel safe?

First and foremost, we’re not going to out-think the CDC or contravene any laws but there are a few common sense things that just keep coming up: masks, gloves, hand sanitizer and social distancing (outside and inside the office) will be with us for a while. As will a renewed focus on disinfecting things we touch frequently like doors, phones and handrails. For years in Hong Kong after SARS, there were little stickers everywhere that said when and how often things like elevator call buttons were disaffected. Our desks will have to be tidy and dishes, if we have dishes, really will have to go in the dishwasher.

Who knows, maybe you’ll need a note from a doctor to actually go to work or board a plane? Anyway, it’s a start and I find it useful to think about the future.

Take Care, Riccardo

036

Good Morning everyone,

Are you getting a little stir crazy yet? I am. So it’s probably a good time to remind ourselves about the virtue of patience. Full disclosure, I don’t have much (shocking, I know). But just over a month into our Experiment, we’re all feeling a little too cooped-up, a little too wired-in and more than a little distracted by the news. Even though we can literally see into each other’s homes, we really can’t appreciate the mayhem that may be swirling just outside of the picture. So please remember when dealing with your fellow inmates thatyour fuse might be shorter than normal.

End of sermon.

Now, Thursday we will have our weekly all-hands call at 430. I want to make sure we are making good use of the time and speaking to the things important to you. So I thought I would try a different tack and have you submit questions directly to Brooke. She can keep the questions anonymous, if you prefer and we will try to address those on our weekly calls.

Take good care, Riccardo

037

Good Morning everyone,

In spite of what you might be seeing on the news in places like Florida and Georgia, in Illinois you still can’t go to the beach or get a tattoo. I’m guessing it’s the same for Missouri and Ohio. It has taken us roughly six weeks to get to this point on the infamous curve so returning to the office, in whatever form, is most certainly going to be at least another six weeks away. I know you will make the best of it and be the pros you are by demonstrating your solidarity for your community and frontline healthcare workers everywhere by staying away from the barber shops and hair salons. The waiting, as they say, is not the hardest thing.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, so said Mr. Newton. Let’s hope our collective actions will defy the laws of gravity and be greater than the sum of opposite reactions.

Fun fact: While Cambridge University was closed due to The Plague, Newton went home and invented calculus and his three laws of motion. A point I keep making to my daughter.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 038

THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2020 AT 12:11PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Yesterday, Dan and I met with the Marketing Board which is made up of marketing principals and others, like Jeff and Leila, who are focused on business development and marketing across the firm. The Marketing Board is one of four ‘core boards’ - the others are design, delivery and management. What’s the difference between business development (BD) and marketing? Generally speaking, marketing is an internal function (proposals, awards, interview prep) and BD is external (client relationships, market positioning, industry networking). To make things even more confusing, at HOK we refer to everything we do to a win a new design commission as Marketing, including the time we spend on design competitions.

In round numbers, our revenue is about $300 million per year. If you consider that we burn through our backlog (signed contracts) by earning (advancing projects) at the rate of $1 million per day, then we have to book (replace) that backlog with new work at about the same rate, otherwise we’d be out of business. So, Marketing is a critical piece of our practice.

The good news is that Mike reported that during the first quarter of the year HOK’s largest pursuits were: Calgary Arena (won), MTA East Side Access Branding (won), UCSF Hospital (interviewed), St. Louis Convention Center (lost), Ochsner Health Master Plan (won); F. Lauderdale Police (lost), Zurich Airport (design competition), San Diego Airport T1 (design competition), Hong Kong University of S+T (lost), Canadian Government Labs (won) and Cardiff Arena (pending decision).

The bad news is that, in spite of everyone’s best efforts, the market is shrinking. I think of ‘the market’ as the number of projects out there. The corporate interiors has been particularly hard hit and HOK Canada, which has one of our largest interiors practices, had to reduce its ranks yesterday by 25 people. More news as it becomes available.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 039

FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2020 AT 08:59AM

Good Morning everyone,

We had a good turnout yesterday for the Graceworks training seminar on making virtual presentations. Carol and Kurt practice what they preach so, the day after, it was not difficult for me to recall their key points and remember the people making those points. Not coincidentally, this is the exactly what we want from our clients or as Carol calls them, our listeners.

For those of you who could not make it, here are five things I took away:

1. Help your listener. While you are making sure that they are following you, you focus on them. As a result, you have no time to worry about whether or not you’ve remembered every word of your presentation. You’re simply making a personal connection.

2. Keep it short. 15-45 mins seems to be the maximum amount of time we can hold someone’s attention effectively. Check-in to see if people need a break to attend to something else or just walk around.

3. Focus on one. thing. at. a. time. Make sure your words (or gestures) come before the graphics which support them – not the other way around. Also, strip out any unnecessary information on the slides that will distract the ‘listener’.

4. Visualize your story. Get your story straight before picking slides. Then during the presentation, if you re-live the experience and speak from the heart you will remember your presentation, reduce your anxiety and allow your personality to shine through.

5. Practice, Practice, Practice. Out loud. This will help the group transmit to the listeners: we’re a team, we’re organized – we got you.

If you forget everything else, remember Carol’s mantra: make a human connection.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 042

MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2020 AT 01:48PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

As you may know, Sofia’s family lives in New Zealand and Saturday was Anzac Day which commemorates the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp troops who went ashore at Gallipoli, Turkey in 1915 and retreated eight months later in defeat. We don’t hear much about Gallipoli in the US but it was truly a baptism by fire for two young nations.

Over the years, I’ve collected the red paper poppies that you can find everywhere each spring. They honor the soldiers who became symbols of Kiwi and Aussie pride, not because they won but because they put ‘service before self ’.

‘Service before self ’ seemed like a quaint and antiquated concept until a few weeks ago. But I am sure that, looking back on our time years from now, this will be the symbol of our time. Kind of like wearing a paper poppy.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 043

TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2020 AT 11:02AM

Good Morning everyone,

I don’t know about you but working from home is deceptively stressful for me. I know that because I’m exhausted by the end of the day - and I only moved less than 100 feet all day.

I’ve always found that art has the opposite effect on me. Art calms me, makes me feel less frenetic and gives me energy whether its Picasso’s Guernica which depicts the Spanish Civil War or Rothko’s untitled field painting (Orange, Plum, Yellow) which captures…well…the horizon. Or the Spanish flag? I saw both one afternoon this past Christmas at the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid and I left with a profound sense of calm that I always experience after being immersed in capital-a art. I also get a little jolt of energy (and just a little envy)—like I do when I experience a wonderful building)—for being in the presence of an extraordinary talent.

At home, I’m surrounded by art and artifacts that we’ve collected over the years. I’m trying to remember to look up and enjoy the beauty and wonder around me as a counterbalance to WFH.

I’d love to know if you feel the same way and see some examples, too.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 044

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2020 AT 01:51PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

The day has just gotten away from me and I haven’t had a minute until now to send out my usual note.

That said, I was grateful to receive so many responses to my request yesterday to see what beauty and wonder touches you. It’s truly all around us and, too often, we take it for granted. Working from home has literally changed my point of view and has me considering things just a little differently. While art gives me a deep sense of calm, it can also provoke a feeling of great joy. But one man’s joy is another man’s melancholy, as Gaute reminded us.

It was lovely to see the diversity of things you hold dear: children and pets, exotic places, fun food, DYI projects and axes, old toys and wooded blocks, old photographs, ceremonial masks and wool spheres, sports cars and a new driver, a daughter’s voice, and a galaxy far, far away.

Thank you for opening your world up to me…to us.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 045

THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020 AT 12:26PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

There is a lot going on across the firm as we fully process our current Covid-19 world and what comes next. A few initiatives that are happening around the firm now:

! New initiative to pursue institutional work: Federal Government, National Institute of Health, National Parks Service, GSA, Army Corp of Engineers, etc.

! Brainstorming with clients who want to speed work up to take advantage of empty buildings, stadia, and terminals to save time and money.

! Engaging aviation and transportation clients about how to safely move passengers through terminals and stations.

! Working with sport leagues and teams to re-imagine the impact to events.

! Speaking with large engineering firms and contractors to find a role for architects on large infrastructure projects, much like the WPA program of the 1930s (look it up).

! Crafting WorkPlace’s response to clients who want our advice on how they can get back to work – which crosses new boundaries of S+T, healthcare and transportation.

! Working with clients to organize the return to construction sites and what that means for our CA services.

! Ensuring that we coordinate and collaborate to bring the best of HOK to win the projects we are pitching for now.

To name but a few.

Take care, Riccardo

“

On May 1, 1886, 350,000 workers staged a nationwide work stoppage to demand the adoption of a standard eight-hour workday. Forty thousand workers struck in Chicago, Illinois; ten thousand struck in New York; eleven thousand struck in Detroit, Michigan. As many as thirtytwo thousand workers struck in Cincinnati, Ohio, although some of these workers had been out on strike for several months before May 1.

The purpose of the May Day Strike was to bring pressure on employers and state governments to create an eight-hour workday. During this period, workers commonly spent twelve or more hours of each day at work. Unions, especially the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada -- the predecessor of the American Federation of Labor, encouraged workers to strike on May 1, 1886, to demonstrate the need for an eight-hour day. The strike was to last a single day, although numerous workers remained away from their jobs for several weeks.

Not all unions condoned the May Day Strike. The Knights of Labor preferred peaceful negotiations and boycotts to secure better working conditions for employees. Terence Powderly, the leader of the Knights of Labor at this time, prohibited Knights of Labor members from participating. Despite Powderly’s proclamation, thousands of his union’s members struck on May 1. Numerous members of the Knights of Labor opposed the more peaceful tactics of Powderly.

The May Day Strike had some success. In Cincinnati, some employers, hoping to avoid the strike, granted their workers an eight-hour day. Other employers increased workers’ pay. Throughout the late 1800s, May Day Strikes became commonplace. Very quickly similar strikes occurred around the world.

The May Day Strikes helped convince United States President Grover Cleveland to implement Labor Day, a holiday that celebrates the American worker. Numerous countries still celebrate May Day today.

046

Hi all.

I was talking with Riccardo yesterday, and mentioned that I really liked getting his daily ‘Great Experiment’ notes, and that it would be interesting to have a guest emailer now and then. So it seems today is the day, and I am the sub while Riccardo is off supporting Sofia-Marie as she defends her thesis!

I’m really amazed that we seem to have grown closer to one another by being separated for 46 days. Speaking for myself, I feel like we’re more of a family now than ever before. Sincerely concerned and interested in how each other are doing day-to-day, and moment-to-moment, both in Chicago and beyond. Of course, that could just be the isolation talking!

But seriously, it’s been illuminating and a privilege getting a small peek during our weekly (and sometimes daily and hourly) calls, in to the everyday aspects of our coworker-friend’s lives. The backdrops to those calls (when available, and unblurred or unchanged) provide not just a window in to each other’s world outside work, but a jumping-off point for conversation and learning about those we spend as much time with as any others in our lives. Thanks for that.

And since I really liked the ‘Art Challenge’ we did last week, I’d like to hear a story of yours related to something we can all see in your background on a call (include a pic if you like). Doesn’t matter what it is, or what it’s related to, but I think it will ‘pull back the curtain’ a little more, and let us know each other a little better, which I think is a great thing.

Thanks for being amazing people.

Dave

DAY 049

MONDAY, MAY 04, 2020 AT 08:01AM

Good Morning everyone,

Thank you, Dave for taking over as guest host. It was hard not to smile after hearing you (all) describe the things you hold nearest and dearest. These are clearly the things that you keep coming back to over the years and frankly, the things that make you, you.

Although I was not working, Friday was what the rest of the world celebrates as labor day or May Day (which ironically began in Chicago in the late 1800s). Around that time, Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities— something I find myself coming back to over and over lately:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...”

We still live in dichotomous times. But then again, 130 years from now, they will say that that made us, us.

Take good care, Riccardo

050

Good Morning everyone,

We’ve been at this 50 days and, while Our Great Experiment has been a undeniable success and we’ve mastered delivering our services from home, developing new business and winning new work (to replace the work we are doing now) has slowed to a trickle.

It’s not news to you that the industry has stalled as it awaits indications about the future. Unfortunately, the future has become less predictable, not more. Investment decisions are based on predictability of risk (not necessarily the elimination of risk) and that analysis has become more difficult as the business community grapples with the fact the virus will be with us for an extended period of time.

Even clients in less effected businesses, like healthcare are suffering from the lack of revenue, from elective surgeries, which allows them to do all kinds of things like pay the equivalent of their credit cards (debt) and of course, pay us.

We are keenly aware of all of this and staying close to our clients, current and future, for any moves that may impact HOK, one way or another.

Take Care, Riccardo

DAY 051

WEDNESDAY, MAY 06, 2020 AT 09:50AM

Good Morning everyone,

We will be assessing the impact the University of Michigan CIT work stoppage on has on our practice over the coming days.

I am keenly aware of what’s at stake here: your livelihood on one hand and the ability of HOK to endure on the other. There are many variables that go into that seemingly simple equation and our goal, in fact our duty, is to balance all the forces that bear on our practice.

We will do our best to allay your anxiety by moving as fast and as deliberate and as we can. As I have committed to you, we will continue to share as much as we can, as soon as we can, so you too can make plans for the future.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 052

THURSDAY, MAY 07, 2020 AT 12:00PM

Good Morning everyone,

Churchill is famous for his pithy quotes that united the British people to fight the Nazis but he also said, “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”

That came to mind today when I read that President Obama made video calls to thank Chicago Public School teachers during the national Teacher Appreciation Week. Obama said, “There’s no limit to the devotion I’ve seen in teachers like these…Their dedication shapes the best parts of who we become.”

You do that. Your work shapes all of us and the best parts of who we will become.

Take good care, Riccardo

I piggy backed on Riccardo’s email to share a weird fact about a woodpecker. As the image shows, woodpecker’s tongue wraps behind its brain to help absorb the shock when pecking. The long tongue is also used to grab bugs in a hard to reach area.

DAY 053

FRIDAY, MAY 08, 2020 AT 09:47AM

Good Morning everyone,

Today I was awaken to the sound of woodpecker. It sounded like an old telephone ringing in the other room but I haven’t had one of those since 2008, the last time we were in the middle of a global crisis. We made it back from that crisis and a lot has changed since then including telephones which are now just called phones but nobody calls you on them anymore.

I suspect that years from now, after the dust settles, we’ll look back on this time and see with clarity so much that is obscure to us now. Healthcare, working from home, and travel around will be different. Phones will change again and so will HOK. The woodpecker, oblivious to all the commotion, will still be here hammering away.

Take care, Riccardo

056

Good Afternoon everyone,

During our monthly board meeting this morning, we reviewed the firm’s financial results through April. The overall the results were decent but no one was celebrating. The economic downturn is still unfolding around us and nowhere is that more apparent than here in Chicago. To that end, we are reviewing our project commitments in Chicago and Columbus and we will discuss our plans for going forward on Thursday.

Returning to the board for a minute: in last month’s meeting we took time to discuss HOK’s plans for going forward. That’s a typical topic for these meetings but these are not typical times. Paraphrasing Chinese culture and JFK: danger and opportunity are borne from the same crisis. With that in mind, we have decided to focus on four specific initiatives which we feel will further separate us from our competition: collaboration, marketing, market strategy and sustainability. More on that soon.

Finally, I would like to thank our Erik Slowik and Leila Ray who have been working behind the scenes to help me reimage how we can capture project data for later use to, study trends, review fee across the company by building type, and write better proposals. They will achieve this by connecting the fragmented Deltek system and streamline the process that has plagued marketing, project management and accounting for years. The board approved a pilot study to test their new and improved data capture system in Chicago.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 057

TUESDAY, MAY 12, 2020 AT 10:01AM

Good Morning everyone,

Yesterday about three-quarters of my emails were mysteriously deleted which, I have to confess, amounts to thousands of emails. In spite of my best efforts to keep the numbers down, I still end up with a net gain of emails each and every day.

Why bring this up?

Because just having thousands of emails in my inbox is a source of both comfort (I know everything is there) and a source anxiety (I know everything is there). Marie Condo was just becoming known outside of Japan when we lived in Hong Kong and she caught our attention, in part, because she shares a name with my daughter. While sorting through Sofia- Marie’s accumulation of stuff that she had hauled around the world, we would routinely ask her in Condo-esque fashion, “Does this give you joy?” If not, “Bin it!” become our mantra.

Well, emails gives me no joy however they do give me comfort. So, just as Sofia-Marie would rescue beloved items from the recycling the following day, I’ll do the same with cherished my emails. But it gives me no joy to do it.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 058

WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2020 AT 04:09PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Hope you had a productive day and took a few minutes to enjoy the fleeting sunshine. No fighter jets out there today but spring is this close - I can feel it.

Have a good evening. Back tomorrow. Take Care, Riccardo

063

Good Afternoon everyone,

We live in a time of uncertainty. Recently, I read that people think that uncertainty is like roulette. But that’s incorrect. In roulette, because a player knows all the possible places the ball can land, she can also know how likely it will land on a given number. So, it’s easy to place your bets when you know what you’re betting on.

Turns out that life isn’t that clear. We try to reduce uncertainly from our lives even though we can’t know all the events that can possibly happen, let alone how likely they’ll occur. We have to continue to place our bets everyday based on the best information we have, incomplete as it may be, in spite of the fact that somedays we may feel more like the little ball than a roulette player.

The only thing I can say with any certainty is this: there’s something invigorating about pushing your chips in and spinning the wheel.

Take Care, Riccardo

DAY 064

TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020 AT 01:58PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

The news reminds me daily that, on top of a global pandemic, we still have a ton of other stuff to worry about. The world seems like it’s in a constant state of chaos. But yesterday I did something that changed my outlook a bit – I picked up take-out food from Alinea to celebrate my daughter’s birthday.

When we pulled up curbside and were handed two unmarked paper bags. The bags were filled with tiny Solo cups with clear plastic tops filled with ingredients; aluminum and plastic food containers; bottles of bourbon and cabaret sauvignon - both with screw-off tops. They even gave us a piece of acetate to be used as the ‘canvas’ upon which we would later construct their signature Pollock-esque desert.

Even though the food was extraordinary in its complexity, everything else was as simple and humble as it possibly could be. That got me thinking that we actually need both – the complex and the simple – to balance the chaos around us.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 065

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020 AT 02:22PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I had a question last week about how we measure the financial health of our practice. Good question. Let me see if I can explain our situation a bit better:

As a benchmark we like to see about 10 months of backlog (signed contracts) at any given time. Even with the loss of UofM, our backlog is above that metric - and that’s true for HOK as a whole, as well. That does not mean we expect to finish all of our work in 10 months – each project has its own time frame. But viewed through that lens, HOK looks solid.

We also look at the how fast we are replacing our current work with new commissions. We monitor awarded-not-contracted (projects we’ve won but haven’t yet started because we don’t have a signed agreement). That number, while still at a healthy level, is more tenuous because clients are not in the same hurry they once were to sign us up and get us started.

When we add backlog and awarded-not-contracted, HOK is still the envy of our peers. However, regardless of the metrics, we have to management the business conservatively because, as we have seen, some of those project will stop and others will never happen. So, we are focusing on the clients we have and making sure they are the recipients of outstanding HOK service while, at the same time, aggressively positioning ourselves to win the new commissions that will fill our backlog later in the year.

I hope that’s helpful. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 066

THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2020 AT 11:55AM

Good Morning everyone,

Hard to believe the summer is around the corner. Memorial Day is Monday and, with 5 of 12 months in books, almost half-time.

Half-time is a concept once used in the olden days during sporting events (remember those) when each side was given a chance to rest, review the game plan and give rousing speeches. Coming back out onto the field, the teams I played for always seemed to suffer the dreaded “3rd quarter letdown” – a lull in our performance that made it nearly impossible to recover from in the last quarter.

For some reason, we couldn’t shake off that drop in intensity. We knew that if we just cleared our heads of the fog, then things would turn out in our favor. But we were both inside our own heads and observers of the game at the same time and the clock wound down. Afterwards, we regretted not doing the things we were capable of when we had the chance and the time to make a difference.

That’s something I’ve been thinking about as we come upon the long weekend: will we return with the same intensity that made us successful in the first place?

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 067

FRIDAY,

MAY 22, 2020 AT 04:27PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

We’ve had a tough, tension-filled past few months so it’s a perfect time to take a break and take stock. Enjoy the long weekend.

We’ll see you back here on Tuesday - if not bright-eyed, then at least bushy-tailed.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 071

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2020 AT 12:28PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

It was a beautiful, summer-like Memorial Day weekend in Chicago. I hope you enjoyed it as we did.

In my neighborhood, maybe it was the old war movies, the stars and stripes bunting on the fence down the street or the sounds of screen doors slamming, but it seemed like a caricature of the 1950’s: People strolled and talked to friends over fence posts; Bikes glided past the wrong way on streets with no cars. Sunbathers lay randomly but uniformly across fresh cut grass. Kids crossed the street at random angles unphased.

I have no illusions: it was oddly quiet for a reason. For a short time I felt transported, not to the black & white TV past but to a new future. Who knows, maybe sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Take good care, Riccardo

072

Good Morning everyone,

In meetings across HOK, we’ve been debating what the work place of the future will look like and what business opportunities that presents HOK – especially for our interiors, workplace and consulting practicesnow. There are no shortage of ideas out there but the only concrete fact is this: no one knows any more about the future of the work place than we do, and most know a lot less.

Herd immunity has been in the news lately but there is also herd mentality or herd behavior which describes how we learn from each other and make decisions, frequently on an emotional rather than rational basis. We do this naturally in the absence of centralized decision making so, eventually, current and future clients, users, consultants, academics and designers all will arrive at a new spectrum of solutions. But why wait?

I believe HOK should always lead from the front. We should stake out a position and convince people that we have a vision and that they need to hire us! That’s not to say we should be intractable about our view –we should evolve our thinking as we learn more – but we should put our ideas out there and own them.

For instance, I think these five attributes will influence design and real estate decisions for a generation.

1. 25% of people will not return to the office, ever.

2. Main offices will skew towards touchstones for company culture and gatherings and a transient work force.

3. Reconfigure furniture for permanent social distancing.

4. Employees’ time in the office will rotate and be on staggering daily schedule.

5. Satellite offices will pop up away from the main locations to reduce commuting.

Thoughts? Let me know.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 073

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2020 AT 09:35AM

Good morning all,

I’m subbing in for Riccardo today (he’s celebrating his daughter’s graduation!). I really appreciated the opportunity yesterday to reflect on 27 years of practice and 10 years at HOK in the May mentoring presentation. I had some additional thoughts afterwards:

! I could do a whole other presentation on just the mistakes I’ve made and what I’ve learned from them (would need to be more than an hour)

! I haven’t expressed nearly as much gratitude as I should to so many people who have helped me learn and grow

! There is still so much to learn! Not only in is there more knowledge out there, but it’s a lot more dynamic than back in olden days

Riffing on the message from yesterday—for sure remote work is going to be a big part of our future, and there’s no doubt that presents challenges to informal and spontaneous learning (kind of like design collaboration). That doesn’t mean we can’t try our best and be creative about our processes as well as our product. I definitely want to offer a shout out to the mentoring committee for being thoughtful about this during our great experiment; and would offer a challenge to all for us to think of more opportunities to support and encourage our culture of growth and learning.

Thanks and be well! Will

DAY 074

FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2020 AT 12:00PM

Happy Friday Everyone,

Riccardo invited me to be today’s guest writer. During a chat with one of my mentees this week, I was encouraged to share some of my advice with a larger audience. This prompted me to think of writing to the office. Riccardo gave this idea the thumbs up. Here it goes…

One of my favorite classes in graduate school was taught by Dr. Ron Heiftetz. Last weekend, I had the opportunity to reconnect with my classmates and Professor Heifetz for my 5 year reunion. Of course, it has held via Zoom, but the message that we were able to take with us as we swiveled away from our desks was pretty timely and impactful.

Professor Heifetz is a medical doctor who practiced psychiatry before transitioning to teach about adaptive leadership for 37 years and counting. A truly phenomenal person. When Middle East peace treaties need to be negotiated, this is the guy who they call. In any case, I made sure to jot down what he said at reunion accompanied by some of my own thoughts and I’m sharing it with whoever will listen.

Key Takeaways from Professor Heifetz re: prevailing over a pandemic

1. We are all experiencing trauma in different ways and we must acknowledge this for ourselves and for others; treat each other with grace.

2. To maintain our resilience, we must anchor ourselves; anchors are things that we do daily to help us re-center and they can include anything from jogging to journaling, praying to playing music, or meditating to reading. Daily anchors are vital during difficult times, in fact that’s when they are most valuable as tools to foster resilience. It doesn’t matter what your anchors are, just find them and cling to them as your sacred time for you.

3. We must find calm and quiet, which is served by both anchors and sanctuaries, which are places that help us meet with ourselves. A sanctuary can be your backyard, your local park or your bedroom, as examples. It’s simply a place where you can reflect and recharge your batteries in peace.

4. We must create space for us to mourn the loses that the present environment has created. Our way of life has dramatically changed over the past three months. It’s okay to allow yourself to feel some level of despair, at least for a little while.

5. In order to emerge from the despair we must allow ourselves to feel, we must also be intentional about restoring our sense of hope and optimism. This can be accomplished by reconnecting with family and friends, creating artwork, rediscovering your passion for something and somehow finding even the little things in our daily lives to be grateful for.

Take Good Care, Kim

DAY 077

MONDAY, JUNE 01, 2020 AT 12:26PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Thank you Kim and Will for standing in for me last week. Saturday while I marveled that somethings truly are rocket science, I simultaneously watched the country descend into the depths of despair. On the Sunday morning news programs, I heard two things (on Fox and CNN) that articulated both harsh criticism for our country but also optimism about our future:

! “The pandemic is like an x-ray: it exposed all the broken places in our society. Now we know what to fix.”

! “Critics say that America is a lie. It’s not, it’s a disappointment. It can be a disappointment only because there is hope.”

Our natural tendency is to put things into a categories, imprecise as they may be, in order to be able to quickly make sense of the world. In fact, we know that our minds can deceive us and that categorization leads to all kinds of false assumptions (and bias) because, upon further reflection, we know that most of the world is not defined by binary choices. We know that we can have both left and right views; we can be healthy while carrying around a deadly virus; and, we can protest against one injustice while inadvertently creating another.

I’m disappointed but now I know what to fix.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 078

TUESDAY, JUNE 02, 2020 AT 10:31AM

Good Morning everyone,

We will have an invited guest next week to our Thursday afternoon all hands meeting: Patrick MacLeamy, former CEO and 50-year veteran of HOK. Patrick has spent the last several years writing, “Designing a World-Class Architecture Firm. The people, stories, and strategies behind HOK.” in which he painstakingly documented the evolution of the firm and the empirically derived lessons he believes can serve as the recipe for a successful design practice. I agree.

HOK was conceived by George Hellmuth as the antithesis to the architectural practices of the time: a practice that could survive economic upheavals like the Great Depression and the boom-bust cycles that systemically put architects, like his father, out of business with predicable regularity. George was long into his second profession, painting in Oaxaca, when I met him. His great experiment, he reminded me, began when he was 48 years old when he split from Minoru Yamasaki and started HOK.

After starting in St. Louis, Patrick was dispatched to San Francisco in 1970 – a city convulsing from Vietnam War protests and the counterculture revolution. I’ll let Patrick pick up the story from there but, suffice it to say, I believe Patrick’s observations will resonate you, as they do with me, now more than ever.

I encourage you all to attend, listen, and answer questions. Take care, Riccardo

Kim’s response captures the raw emotion that many of us felt during that summer.

“There is no reasonable response to an unreasonable situation.”

My thoughts were consumed by anger, disappointment, fear, and empathy for months. It was comforting to see Riccardo and Kim sharing similar emotions and eloquently speaking about them.

I can’t say I figured out what an appropriate response looks like because I do not believe one exists. All I know is that during that time, and in the time since, I have felt the need to be a stronger ally in the fight for justice. I know that my response needs to be one of empathy, action, and urgency. I appreciated Kim and Riccardo using their platform to engage in difficult conversations and use their examples to continue doing so myself.

This reminded me of the collaboration between Michael Ford and Herman Miller and how we can use our platform to raise awareness and spark meaningful dialogue.

Good Afternoon everyone,

It’s late in the day so I’ll be brief. I listened to Kim’s interview with the Chicago Central Area Committee yesterday. She spoke on various topics related to becoming an architect, the evolution and impact of NOMA, and her impressions of the civil unrest unfolding around us. I don’t want to speak for Kim but she said a few things that resonated with me like: “Racism is rooted in fear.” And, quoting Dr. King, “Rioting is the outrage of the unheard.”

But the one thing that I kept thinking about all night was CCAC’s question about the looting and, I’m paraphrasing, whether or not it was acceptable response.

Kim said, “Looting is an unacceptable response…” she paused then added, “but what is an acceptable response?”

That summed it up for me. I agree. Thanks Kim.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 079

THURSDAY, JUNE 04, 2020 AT 12:16PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Every month or so I speak with our office and market leaders from across the firm regarding their business development efforts and opportunities. These meetings give us a window into our future because we track our future project opportunities known as pipeline. Much like the phases of a project (SD, DD, CD, and CA), we categorize the status of each opportunity in our pipeline in ascending order of specificity: Lead, Request for Qualifications (RFQ), Request for Proposal (RFP), Interviews, and Awarded-not-Contracted (ANC). ANC are projects that we have been awarded but have not yet received a signed a contract.

Recent feedback indicates that, while we are nowhere near the prepandemic market activity, there are some bright spots where HOK is well positioned to win and, indeed already has. Here’s a few notable opportunities (and the lead office and market) that I thought you might be interested in knowing about:

Awarded-not-Contracted

Apple (SF, Interiors)

Al Khiran New City Abu Dhabi (London, Planning)

Carnegie Institution for Science at Caltech (LA/DC, S+T)

Hong Kong Sports Arena (London/Hong Kong, SRE)

Royal Dutch Shell MSA (Houston, Workplace)

USC Computational Science Building (LA/SF, S+T)

Interviews

San Diego Airport T1, (LA, A+T)

Tampa Convention Center (Tampa, SRE)

UW Eau Claire Science (Chicago, S+T)

University of Florida College of Pharmacy (Tampa, S+T)

Zebra Technologies MSA (Chicago, Workplace)

RFPs & Qs

Consumers Credit Union (Chicago, Interiors)

Discovery Partners Institute (Chicago, S+T)

Hamilton Health West Lincoln Memorial Ontario (Toronto/Chicago, Healthcare)

HSBC MSA (All offices, Workplace)

US Federal Courthouse at Salt Lake City (St. Louis/SF, Justice/Interiors)

Finally, after several years in the making, the headhouse or main terminal at LaGuardia Airport (NY/Chicago, A+T/Engineering) will be opened officially by NY Governor Andrew Cuomo on 13 June!

‘Poco per volta’

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 080

FRIDAY,

JUNE 05, 2020 AT 08:55AM

Good Morning everyone,

Eighty days is a long time to be confined to one place so, that got me daydreaming.

I can’t hear the number 80 without thinking about the Jules Verne’s adventure novel, Around the World in Eighty Days. It was published at a time (1872) when traveling the circumference of the earth, then as now, seemed impossible. It’s interesting to me how Vern’s work of fiction sparked actual circumnavigation attempts. Life imitating art, as it were.

My favorite of these real-world attempts is a trilogy of stories by BBC’s Michael Palin (of Monty Python fame): Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, and Full Circle. If I did it, I’d do it like him. Low keyed. Good-humored. Wanderlust personified - with a camera crew in tow, of course.

Another is a non-stop, around-the-world yacht race. The skipper of the boat who beats the fastest time is awarded The Jules Verne Trophy. It takes about 40 days to complete (unassisted) and it’s grueling. Discomfort heaped upon misery. The harrowing stories the crews have brought back are revered by sailors from Chicago to Hong Kong. Frankly, I’d rather be home and dry reading about it.

In his book about traveling the Equator, Mark Twain said, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn’t.”

Something to ponder this weekend. Stay safe. Take Care, Riccardo

DAY 083

MONDAY,

JUNE 08, 2020 AT 02:01PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

There is perhaps no greater satisfaction than fixing something that you’ve known has been broken for a long time. After staring at a problem forever, just beginning can feel good however not finishing, or worse, breaking it further, can be an exercise in frustration and yes, anger.

Now, I’m sure that I wasn’t thinking consciously of the institutional racism, fragile economy, political ineptitude, or COVID-19 swirling around us when I blew Saturday trying to repair a broken light fixture but it ended in my frustration and I must admit, anger. As we say in our house, I did a good thing badly.

All was not lost: I had Sunday, Father’s Day to look forward to. Gifts were given. Dinner was planned. Wine was selected. But somewhere during the making of a special breakfast in my honor, my wife and daughter started to whisper intensely. Sunday was not Father’s Day. They were two weeks early. Seems they too did a good thing badly.

Have a great week. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 084

TUESDAY, JUNE 09, 2020 AT 01:08PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

To me, it’s become harder and harder to really understand the true scale of things. Everything seems bigger, deeper or wider than ever before.

In Bill Bryson’s book, The Short History of Nearly Everything, he builds us a scale model to help us comprehend the size of the universe: If the Earth was shrunk down to the size of pea, Jupiter would be over 1,000 feet away and Pluto would be another 1½ miles beyond that. In his scale model, our nearest star would be 1,000 miles away or, from here to Denver.

When Mike Collins was orbiting the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin were on the surface below, he looked back at the Earth and marveled, “I had a feeling it’s tiny, it’s shiny, it’s beautiful, it’s home, and it’s fragile.” That had a profound impact on him for the rest of his life.

As the Voyager spacecraft pointed its camera backwards as it was leaving the solar system, it snapped a picture of Earth which appeared as a single pixel. Astronomer Carl Sagan wrote, “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. Every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there––on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

It sometimes help to keep a little perspective.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 085

JUNE 10, 2020 AT 01:37PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Thank you for indulging me over these past 85 days by reading my daily missives. In my attempt to keep us connected, I’ve shared the things on my mind in the hope that they might resonate with you or, at the very least, keep you amused.

For me, one of the unforeseen benefits of WFH is actually having time to think - and then trying to express those ideas in words. Design is my first language so writing does not come naturally to me. But, I’ve come to realize that writing is a lot like the iterative design process we were all taught and, by practicing, we get better. Well, that’s my hope anyway.

My mind can be a cluttered mess, littered with all kinds of stuff. This has been a good time for me to go up there and clear some things out while reminding myself why I’ve held on to some stuff in the first place. When I was in our LA office, I worked with Jeanne Liedtka from the UVA Darden School of Business and she taught me that clarity is the first step to coming up with a good strategy. (Not coincidentally, she writes extensively on Design Thinking).

You have to decide, she said, what you want to keep and what you want to lose. Then, ask yourself: what do you want to create? Keep, lose, create. That’s what I’m trying to do.

Thanks for listening. Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 086

THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020 AT 01:58PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Last week I mentioned that Patrick MacLeamy, the former CEO of HOK, will join us today at 430 to talk about his book, “Designing a World-Class Architecture Firm. The people, stories, and strategies behind HOK.”

Patrick had a 50 year career at HOK starting as a designer fresh out of the University of Illinois and culminating with his long tenure as CEO. He had a front row seat to the evolution of HOK from a one-office, St. Louis-based practice to a design firm with offices and projects around the world.

Patrick was as close to a mentor as I have ever had although we rarely spent time in the same office – including my two years in his home office of San Francisco. Such was his ability to impact me and many others around our firm.

Please join me in welcoming Patrick to HOK Chicago this afternoon.

As always, your questions are welcome. Thanks, Riccardo

DAY 087

FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2020 AT 01:27PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

While we were busy wrapping up the delivery of O’Hare Terminal 5 construction documents, the new main terminal at LaGuardia was opened to high praise. The images are stunning and they remind me how much it actually takes to get anything built let alone something this beautiful.

There are battles and there are wars and this one was both. But the end product should justify all the battles, large and small, and hopefully serves to re-energize everyone who poured there heart in souls into New York City’s new front door. Chicago is in dire need of a front door too and we’re going to give it to them (us!) in about three years when T5 opens to the same critical acclaim. Of that, I am sure.

Of course, we have other battles to fight and wars to wage in order to deliver on all of our beautifully executed design promises. When you think about what’s at stake, it a high calling:

! The impression first-time visitors to Chicago or Louisville will have after arriving at our Terminal 5 or Kentucky International Convention Center.

! The comfort to patients and their families by being treated at the University of Michigan, Franciscan or Prince of Wales hospitals.

! The impact our Joliet mental health facility will have on those battling mental health illness while incarcerated.

! The importance to the remote communities of Alaska being served by Chief Andrew Isaac health center.

! The relief employees will experience when they return to work after months away to entirely reconceived workplaces at WPP and TradeDesk.

I sometimes forget how many people we touch through our work. And that’s something clearly worth fighting for.

Have a good weekend. Take good care, Riccardo

FYI: Here’s a few links to LaGuardia images: Art That Might Make You Want to Go to La Guardia - The New York Times From ‘Disgraceful’ to ‘Breathtaking’: La Guardia’s $4 Billion Makeover - The New York Times

“

I am 3 years into my time at HOK and into the design profession overall. 1 ½-2 years of that time was in the pandemic. That been said, I have little exposure to this industry and the people who represent it. During this unique time, I have not only seen a glimpse of who Riccardo is personal but who he is as a leader.

This Great Experiment email was one of many that grew my respect for Riccardo. A leader could take this time to panic and bring panic to their team, but Riccardo chose the opposite for our team. He chose hope and to use the time to reflect on why we do what we do. He reflects on our tools, or gifts, being an opportunity to build a better future.

What better time than now can we chose that for a hurting world? He encouraged us to ask, why not. Why not use our gifts for good and help make this world better than it was yesterday?

090

Good Afternoon everyone,

Three months into our Great Experiment and we’re all still trying to make sense of what’s happening around us and what the future holds.

I believe we possess a unique set of tools, that others don’t have, to shape our future. As designers we’re used to starting from scratch, questioning what came before, dreaming up a something new, and then giving instructions (literally) to build that future. The only limit is our imagination and how committed we are to seeing our vision through.

Robert Kennedy famously said, “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” We take it for granted but most people don’t think like that. We do it naturally. It drives people around us crazy because we can’t help but thinking how we can improve the things around us. That’s why I’m optimistic about our future and our role in created it. We’re just incapable of leaving it alone.

Have a good week. Take good care.

Riccardo

091

Good Morning everyone,

For the next two days, the Executive Committee will meet (online) for our second quarterly meeting of 2020. We continue to monitor our business more closely than ever before. We normally create an annual business plan at the beginning of the year and use it to measure our monthly progress against it. This year we have revised our plan three times to reflect changes in our outlook. Here’s a few other things we watch:

Corporate Overhead is the cost charged to every office for the support provided by our centralize corporate groups, i.e. accounting, legal, IT, insurance, and MBUs. Our corporate overhead runs about 14% of our fees. Currently, we are running under that amount and that’s a good indication that the company’s infrastructure is aligned with the fees generated by the offices.

We also look at how long it takes for clients to pay our bills or Days Outstanding. On average, it’s taking our clients about a week longer to pay us than this time last year. Not great but well within a manageable range for HOK.

We look at Chargeability which is a measurement of how efficiently we are delivering our work (this what all those timesheets are for). We like to see this metric at 70% (i.e. the average percentage that each of us charges to a project). On that score, we’re right on the money.

We manage our frim by looking at an entire dashboard of indicators, each one telling us something slightly different. Taken as whole, we get a picture of the overall health of the firm. What we see now is encouraging: the first five months of the year have been good. But, just like with your own health, we have to do a little bit of preventive maintenance every day to keep the firm running smoothly.

Take care, Riccardo

092

Good morning all,

While Riccardo is off with the Executive Committee discussing how HOK will thrive for another 60+ years he asked me to be the guest writer for Day 92 of our great experiment.

I have been struck by the duality of living day by day with the pandemic and protests while wondering what the long-term impacts might be. I just finished a few books that have made me think more about the moments in front of us and they have given me perspective as to what the future might hold. Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson’s book “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry”; curiosity leads to new lines of inquiry and how theories are postulated but take decades to prove. In “The Demon Under the Microscope”, Thomas Hager weaves a story of medicine in the early part of the last century going from doing very little good to creating magic bullets that have saved an untold number of lives. And in “Factfullness”, Dr Hans Rosling lets us all in on a secret, that things are actually better than we think if we are willing to investigate without our preconceived notions.

So, as I look forward to a new day I try to do some good, be patient and kind and work toward the changes I hope to see in the world. I have enjoyed sharing our experiences and look forward to continuing writing our stories.

Take care and take action.

DANIEL NIEWOEHNER

DAY 093

THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2020 AT 08:08AM

We’ve all enjoyed and appreciated Riccardo’s thoughts over the past 92 days of our ‘great experiment’. We’ve learned a lot, and most importantly we’ve gained a privileged insight into our leaders mind – and how that works. Well, for today he’s handed over the mic – so here’s a brief insight into mine.

Day 84 was the highlight for me, Bill Bryson’s quote “I had a feeling it’s tiny, it’s shiny, it’s beautiful, it’s home, and it’s fragile.” That was Mike Collins orbiting the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin were on the surface below, he looked back at the Earth and marveled. That had a profound impact on him for the rest of his life.

Two remarkable explorations this week - the first American woman to walk in space has become the first woman to reach the deepest known spot in the ocean. Kathy Sullivan, an astronaut and oceanographer, emerged from her 35,810-foot dive to the Challenger Deep, in the Western Pacific Ocean. This makes Dr. Sullivan the first person to both walk in space and to descend to the deepest point in the ocean.

Also this week, Vanessa O’Brien has boldly gone where no woman has gone before: to the highest and lowest points on the planet. Years after reaching the top of Everest on 14 May 2012, British-American explorer Vanessa O’Brien completed her submersible dive to the bottom of Challenger Deep, on 12 June 2020, hitting a record depth of 10,925 meters.

From the moment we stepped foot on earth, we have been explorers, a quest to discover the highs and the lows, the vast breadth continents and oceans; we are all inherent, incessant explorers - we just can’t help it! The walkers, runners, riders, fliers, sailors, the walkers around the office, around the house – we just can’t sit still, we have to be on the move, discovering new aspects and cultures of this remarkable place, our planet, which we call home.

So, to bring this back us all, we have paused, yes, paused for a minute, but just a minute, while we navigate around this current crisis, while we safeguard our future on Earth. This is not the first crisis, not the last, it is the current one.

“It’s tiny, it’s shiny, it’s beautiful, it’s home, and it’s fragile” – and we are going to continue to explore it, protect it and have fun with it.

Take good care, Will

DAY 094

FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2020 AT 12:02AM

Good Morning everyone,

Thank you Daniel and Will for standing in for me these last two days.

Today is Juneteenth which commemorates the end of slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation became official on New Year’s Day 1863 but this celebration came into being two years later when the news (accompanied by Union soldiers) reached Texas that the enslaved were now free. A true independence day if there ever was one. However, Lincoln never got the chance to preside over an entire country of free people, he was assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer two months earlier.

While the pandemic will take its toll and then retreat, inequality rooted in race remains an intractable part of our society. Racial injustice, for most of us, still simmers just below the surface. Unlike the virus through, we don’t have to wait for someone else to solve this problem. We can do something, even something small, that can change our society for the better. I heard an interview recently that drove the point home to me:

When the Son of one of the nine people murdered in a African-American church in Charleston addressed a congregation five years later, he surprised everyone by preaching love not hate. He then asked everyone to give somebody a hug who looked different than themselves and to tell them that they love them. They did so but it was awkward. However afterwards, parishioners told him that that was the first time they had ever done that – embrace someone that looked different. And that was in church.

It’s a small story with a two messages: we unconsciously drift toward people like ourselves and a small step can begin to reverse a lifetime of bias and habits. My hope is that we all take a step today towards a more equal and just society. For ways you can have an impact, look for a message this morning from Patrick, Scott, Brooke and Kim.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 097

MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2020 AT 01:57PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

A summer squall just rumbled through here unanticipated and unannounced like a college buddy on a bender. It wasn’t in the forecast or on the radar five minutes before. There was no warning. No menacing skies or preemptive claps of lightning. It just welled up west of here and marched through north by north east dumping rain sideways. I hear the thunder now – retreating as it advances. For all of our attempts to do otherwise, we just can’t seem to predict the weather. Or, the future for that matter.

Sun’s out now. Have a good week.

Take good care, Riccardo

This reminded me that, no matter how hard we try we can’t control our circumstances; we can only choose how we react to them. In a year where so much seemed out of control, I feel like many of us tried our best to feel in control. This note reminded me that sometimes we have to go with the flow. It also made me think that this storm we’re all living through would one day be over.

DAY 098

TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2020 AT 10:25AM

Good Morning everyone,

Last week I participated in the Executive Committee’s quarterly strategy meeting. While I can’t share the content of our conversations, I thought you might be interested in the topics we discussed in a 14 hour conference call over two days:

Financials Office-by-office performance, corporate overhead spending Marketing & BD Awarded-Not-Contracted, Federal Government Task Force, strategic relationships

Diversity Diversity Advisory Council, initiatives, firm-wide communication

Leadership Core Boards, board effectiveness

Markets Market review, BD forecast (Justice, Workplace and On Site Services)

HR Key talent recruiting, headcount, opportunities for people

Legal Risk, potential claims, new contract terms, licensing policy

Returning to Work Schedule, policy, PPE, working from home

I like to demystify what HOK is (and what it isn’t), how we work, how we think, and how we run the firm. HOK is somewhat unique for its scale and complexity. However, our issues are remarkably similar to those we grapple with in our Chicago practice and what you might encounter if you were running your own business.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 099

Good Afternoon everyone,

Tomorrow we can reflect our 100th day in captivity but today, on day 99, the eve of a milestone of sorts, it’s worth reminding ourselves how long the road is ahead of us to return to anything close to normal. The latest thinking around HOK is that we will return to the office after Labor Day when most people are naturally transitioning from summer to fall anyway. Could be sooner. But it also could be later.

So now my PSA:

In spite of the deceptive appearance of normalcy out there - the nice weather, sidewalk dinning, group outings, busy shops – there is still an incredibly contagious virus circulating amongst us. This thing is not behind us. And sadly, we can’t will it away because we’re all exhausted (which we are). It’s just not going to happen that easily. We have to continue the hard work of keeping our masks on and keeping our social distance.

When I would gripe to my grandfather about all I was missing while in grad school, sunny Southern California just outside my studio window, he wouldn’t give me an inch, “Pay now. Play later”.

Take good care, Riccardo

100

Good Morning everyone,

After the first one-hundred days in office, politicians typically look back and take stock of their accomplishments and hold a press conference to take credit for every good thing that happened since being elected. The truth is that most what they claim had probably been in the works well before inauguration day. Meaningful change takes time: it took FDR more than two years into his first term to create Social Security, LBJ 1½ years to pass the Civil Rights Act, and Regan six years to make tax reform a reality. It turns out that making big changes to the federal bureaucracy take time.

We have our own bureaucracy to contend with. Early in my career at HOK, those resistant to change were resigned because they felt that our size constrained us from being nimble, “It’s hard to turn a battleship”, they would say. I never believed that - we cannot possibly be bound by the limits we ourselves create. Change, therefore, is only a question of will and imagination and we proved it: after decades of working in one predetermined way, we left the office on a Monday and began working in a whole new way from home the next morning. We didn’t skip a beat.

The truth is that like those big pieces of legislation, we actually had been working toward that shift for years with the rise of ubiquitous wifi, home computers, web-based software, cloud computing, ACR meetings, and Starbucks. We just didn’t know it. We couldn’t imagine it until we had to.

JFK said in his inaugural address, “All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days, nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.” I believe that Our Great Experiment has changed HOK and our profession forever. And we’ve only just begun. Tell me, what were your major changes over the last 100 Days?

Thank You. Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 101

FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2020 AT 09:38AM

Good Morning everyone, We’re off sailing today to check on The Lake. Stay safe and enjoy your weekend. Take care, Riccardo

Couldn’t find a boat, but we found the lake.

MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2020 AT 03:01PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I find myself critiquing the political response to the crises we face as hubristic, arrogant and ignorant, usually in combination. It’s so common in fact, that I had remind myself what those words actually mean taken individually:

! Hubris - excessive pride or self-confidence

! Arrogance - full of self-importance and a feeling of superiority

! Ignorance - deliberate disregard of important facts

OK, that’s clear. Now, why can’t people see that this trifecta is blinding them from what’s plain for all of us to see? ! Then I had this recollection:

By the time I signed up for my third marathon, I knew exactly what to do. I was a two-time (!) veteran of this same race. My preparations ended when I picked up my bib (number) a few days before the race at the local convention center. That year you could fill out a card at registration to have your number replaced with your name. When I collected my bib, a volunteer handed it to me and implored me to check it to make sure that everything was correct. I smirked and said something like, I’ve done this before. This is old hat. I’m a veteran of this race. I know who to spell my own name. As I was walking away she insisted, “I’ve seen people regret it later when they don’t check the name.” She tried to save me from embarrassment but I wouldn’t hear it. I filled out the form. It’s fine.

A few days later, the newspaper recorded that a +40 yr. old MASICA ran a good race but was well off the pace of the winner of +70 yr. old division by a full hour. Pictures of that race remind me that the antidote to hubris, arrogance and ignorance is humility (and an occasional a** kicking).

Have a good week. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 105

TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2020 AT 04:45PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Well it’s nearing the end of the day and, like so many days WFH, its gone by quickly. Yesterday we learned that we were not successful on giving Woodridge the public safety building they need so, instead, they will get the one they deserve from someone far less qualified than HOK. Yes, I know, sour grapes. That said, it was great effort all the way around.

Also, I spent two hours on call with WSP, the engineering conglomerate, and our S+T MBU leadership. This was the second of several meetings we have set up to further our strategic relationship with WSP specialists and our MBUs. We have already met with Healthcare and next week we will meet with Sport. We have worked with WSP for years both here in Chicago (i.e. Halvorson structural engineers, Flak and Kurtz MEP, and Parsons Brinckerhoff are all part of WSP) and abroad. Three years ago we began working together as a joint venture on the Canadian Parliament conservation, renovation and expansion. Since then, I have been meeting with them monthly to review marketing pursuits and our current projects across our firms. At any given time, we have about two dozen marketing pursuits together and about half that many active projects. We hope that our success together will continue to breed success.

Finally, in advance of tomorrow’s Diversity & Inclusion Round Table call at noon, I spoke with Samuel Rojas who is a Sr. Consultant in our Consulting Group in Houston. We discussed the call he helped organize - HOK Texas Against Racism. Amongst other positive outcomes, the call was special in how our HOK colleagues were open to sharing their experiences and thus making the issue of racism less abstract and more personal for the rest of us.

I’m looking forward to our call. Please join us if you can.

Have a good evening. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 106

WEDNESDAY, JULY 01, 2020 AT 10:40AM

Good Morning everyone,

The largest firms in the country meet regularly at the AIA Large Firm Round Table. At the national level, Carl Galioto is our representative and he recently shared with our Executive Committee this short presentation from AIA’s Chief Economist about the economic outlook for the design and construction industry. A few sobering points:

! Architectural Billings Index dropped far more than in the wake of the 2001 and 2008 financial crises.

! Architecture firms lost nearly 11,000 jobs in April alone.

! 68% of all firms received Payroll Protection Program loans under the Federal CARES Act.

As we have seen firsthand in Chicago, HOK is not immune to the forces of the economy. However unlike many, our billings are still very strong and HOK was not amongst those who required government assistance.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 107

THURSDAY, JULY 02, 2020 AT 12:00PM Our Great Experiment

Good Afternoon everyone,

I want to thank everyone who participated in our Diversity & Inclusion Round Table call yesterday. Thanks to Tam for suggesting it and for our local Diversity Advisory Committee who set it up and followed through - Brooke, Javier, Kim, Patrick and Scott. I very much appreciated the questions from Sebastian, Tam, Allison and others but I couldn’t help but feel that we could have used more time.

Last night I was watching Charlayne Hunter-Gault’s interview of David Brooks on PBS NewsHour : Reasons for hope amid America’s racial unrest. Something Brooks said struck me as relevant, “The more uncomfortable the conversation, the more I learn” and that we should sustain an amount of “useful discomfort” in order to progress. I couldn’t agree more.

Terry Paterni referenced his beloved Steeler’s commitment diversity - to great effect - by expanding the search for a head coach to include people of color as potential candidates. Terry is also fond of quoting Voltaire, “Nothing can withstand the pressure of sustained thought.”

To that end, I would like to set up another call so that we can hear more of your thoughts, uncomfortable as they may be.

DAY 111

MONDAY, JULY 6, 2020 AT 12:46PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I hope you enjoyed your long weekend or better yet, you’re still enjoying it today. It’s been well deserved.

Our financial results will come out next week and all indications are that the firm will wrap-up the first half of year much better than we predicted in March when we began our Great Experiment. However, six month do not a year make so, in many respects, our performance is going to really depend on how well we do from here to the end of December. Makes sense.

That’s not to say that we haven’t had to make some difficult choices in order to keep this place moving forward. We have. And we’re cognizant of the fact that our performance to date was bolstered by projects won pre- COVID. While our backlog remains strong, uncertainty in the market has hindered our clients’ from making decisions about new projects. The recent surge in virus cases across the country doesn’t seem to be helping either. That only means that we have to keep chipping away at the new prospects in front of us and use all of our tools to win.

That said, I count myself amongst the lucky to be in this boat together with you.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 112

TUESDAY,

JULY 07, 2020 AT 08:25PM

Good Evening everyone,

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”, said Mr. Twain.

Normally, that would pertain to me but today I didn’t have time for either. So, have a good night and we’ll catch up tomorrow.

Take care, Riccardo

Good Afternoon everyone,

Today, I spoke with two friends, one my senior and the other my juniorboth architects (or soon-to-be).

The junior is a recent graduate who called looking for his first permanent job. Landing your first position is fraught with peril in the pandemic era and I know him just well enough to know that he was asking a question that he already knew the answer to. He has his entire future ahead of him but getting a break depends on talent and luck in equal measure. His first real-world lesson: timing is everything.

The second conversation I had was with a senior colleague who has literally seen it all, certainly more than I ever will. But today we talked about losing his best friend last week. He was not an architect but a professor and over the years they shared a deep love of baseball. We talked about the past and how their professions and baseball became intertwined.

Sadly for both my friends, the future ain’t what it used to be. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 113

THURSDAY, JULY 09, 2020 AT 02:54PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I hope you can join our First Thursday call later today at 430 to take a break, hear some announcements and get caught up on things happening around our virtual office. Just like old times. As always, I’m happy to take your questions or hear your thoughts on the call. You can send those to me beforehand or to Brooke if you would like to remain discrete. Thanks. See you then. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 114

FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020 AT 10:53AM

Good Morning everyone,

Yesterday, we heard from Sarah, Mike, Jessica and Valeria as they presented the team’s beautiful work at WPP and Trade Desk. We saw so much to be proud of.

First and foremost, these projects will continue to raise our design profile in the community. Second, they make us all envious - at least I was. I kept wondering: a) what it must be like to work for a company like this, b) why we don’t we work in a places like this and, c) how do they mix their sangria? Finally, if our prospective clients have the same uncontrollable and visceral reaction that I did when I saw that beautiful roof deck, then it’s clear to me that we’ve crossed another barrier – the work now speaks for itself. And, it speaks volumes about us with saying a word.

That’s when you know that you’ve done something really special - when the work impacts people both emotionally and intellectually without us having to be there to explain it.

Congratulations to everyone that had a hand in both of these lovely projects.

Have a safe (masked) weekend. Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 117

MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020 AT 11:20AM

Good Morning everyone,

Today, HOK, Inc. Board of Directors held its monthly meeting. We discussed:

Our June financial results by office and market.

! Compared to 2019, our revenues are off 3% and profits are down 11%. Our financial health has proven to be resilient in spite of the sputtering economy.

Our pipeline for new commissions.

! Marketing and business development activity are a leading indicators of the future health of our firm. It’s hard to measure exactly but we know our pipeline for new work is not as robust as in years past. We have to have to continue to focus on positioning HOK to win the work that is out there.

The ethos of our Justice Business Unit.

! We discussed our JBU in the midst of the renewed (and necessary) debates around justice inequality, law enforcement, incarceration and mental health. Jeff led a discussion about our unique role as designers and catalysts for change that seeks to positively impact the communities where we work and society as a whole.

The new make-up of our Core Boards (Management, Design, Technical and Marketing).

! Board membership is reviewed annually as we continually look to add new thinking and energy to these committees. New members will be announced later this week.

Quality Management Program Update.

! The status report on the new QA/QC program that began in January and includes monthly audits of key projects from each office, Technical Principals and local project teams.

Have a good week. Take care, Riccardo

Good Afternoon everyone,

“It’s exhausting watching the news, so I just stopped”, someone said to me this week. Personally, I like the news but it has become more and more about less and less and that’s tiring.

Lately, everything seems to be a binary choice between polar opposites. A decision, once made, gives me none of the usual comfort. I’m not talking about political decisions ( (although I could) but the comfort that normally comes from making a decision, putting it behind you and moving on. Today, choices keep coming up again and again and make me re-live my decisions over and over. Mask/no mask? School/no school? Test/no test? Fauci/no Fauci? And that’s just from today.

Of course we’re exhausted. Our minds are like a hard drives that never stop spinning - never quite finding what they’re looking for.

Hang in there. Take care, Riccardo

Good Afternoon everyone,

Six o’clock. Where did the day go? Today I spent the day trying to predict the future.

Each month, I meet with the leadership of each office to try to get an idea of where their practice is headed. Today I met with principals in London, LA, Houston and here in Chicago about new projects on the horizon which might impact them (us) in the near future. This is critical because we need to focus our efforts: there are fewer opportunities to chase and more people chasing them.

As you might expect, each market has its own unique challenges. London, post-Brexit, is flush with healthcare opportunities thanks to the National Health System and the UK government. LA was expecting a rise in aviation work but then S+T took hold and they won two labs at USC and CalTech. Houston thought Texas would be the first to return to normalcy but then the pandemic surged and drove their clients ( Justice) back to the sidelines. For our part in Chicago, we’re waiting to hear the results of our two great interviews - for a lab at UW Eau Claire and for an interiors project at Consumers Credit Union. Meanwhile however, we learned that we were not short listed for the Discover Partners Institute project at The 78.

Two steps forward, one step back. Nothing is easy or predictable these days.

Have a good night. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 120

THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2020 AT 09:15AM

Good Morning everyone,

The other day I mentioned that we shuffle the Core Boards every year. In creating those committees, we aim to create effective working groups that represent a broad range of voices, experiences and geographies. Bill’s email announced the 2020 members which include our Allision Burnell, Dallas Felder and Mntambo Fisher.

I believe that in order to tackle the complex design challenges we face, diversity of thought is crucial when seeking the widest range of all possible design solutions. (I would submit to you that HOK is one hell of a complex design challenge.) So, a little advice to Allison, Dallas and Mntambo and to all of us who participate in groups with more than one member: be an active participant, make your ideas be heard and make an impact. The year goes by quickly.

Congratulations.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 121

FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2020 AT 11:28AM Riccardo Mascia

Good Morning everyone,

It’s become harder and harder to keep up with my project commitments, emails, chats, Teams calls, and the never-ending lists of things to do. Somedays, I hardly seem to make a dent and then, before I know it, the day is over and I haven’t done as much as I wanted. Yet, the list continues to grow. That can lead to varying degrees of stress and anxiety and occasionally trigger (in me anyway) a mild case of procrastination.

When I get overwhelmed and have trouble deciding how to optimize my time, I go back to the Eisenhower Urgent vs. Important Matrix. There are many versions of this diagram (I’ve attached two). I recommend using this simple to tool to give you the peace of mind that you are, in fact, spending your time where it most matters.

The matrix is most often attributed to the former general and President of the United States who said, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important”.

It’s been hard to be on a schedule when working from home. Time slips by and before you know it, the day is over, and your targeted goals are not where you want it to be. The line between the start and end of day has become blurred. This chart was a great guide to organize and utilize my time and maintain a work-life balance as it should be.

DAY 124

MONDAY, JULY 20, 2020 AT 12:31PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Last Friday I talked about distinguishing between urgent/not urgent and important/not important. When I joined the Executive Committee in the midst of the Great Recession, I had a hard time understanding what they spent their time on and why. So, in one of our first quarterly inperson retreats, I used the matrix as a visual reference to ask if a particular issue was worth our limited time together. Looking back on those years, we learned many useful lessons applicable today:

! Diversification strategy: our broad portfolio of projects, locations and people did better than firms focused on one project type or location.

! Aggressive pricing: good firms desperate for work discounted their fees 30% and won more projects (and eventually more clients) than we did.

! Quick decision making: during a crisis, delaying decisions costs both precious time and a lot of money.

Those lessons were hard won and continue to guide our thinking during this time of crisis.

Take care, Riccardo

Good Afternoon everyone,

Marking time at home is different than in the office. That got me thinking lately about things that actually get better, passively, with the passage of time.

Wine, of course, gets better – but not infinitely better – over time. That is to say, if you opened a 2020 vintage in 20 years, it wouldn’t necessarily be better than if you opened it five years from now. But if you selected the wine with a long time horizon in mind, like vintages from Vega Sicilia, Sassicaia or Opus One, you would be grateful for having delayed your gratification.

Investing money is like that, too. The money you invest today, say in your 401k, will benefit from time (and compound interest) compared to the same amount invested 10 years from now. You have to be disciplined but time will reward you. And, the best thing is that you don’t have to do anything - just be patient and wait.

It’s reassuring to me that all the benefits of doing nothing will eventually accrue to me over time.

Take care, Riccardo

Good Afternoon everyone,

On Sunday I collided with a car while cycling on (inner) Lake Shore Drive. I have some bruises and road rash but, other than the ding to my pride, no serious injuries.

What I wanted to share with you today is this: the swift and unselfish actions of a few Good Samaritans, paramedics, ER staff, physicians, x-ray technicians, police and fireman restored my faith in total strangers, first responders and the healthcare system. This eclectic gaggle of people that I ‘d never met knew exactly what how to take care of me. Few words were spoken. Nobody rushed. I don’t believe that I’ve ever been the focus of so much kind and studied attention.

Why was I so surprised? Maybe I was expecting the drama I see on TV? But it was all routine for them, personalize for me, but just another day at the office for them. It’s true that I took a pretty good hit to the helmet but as I was falling asleep, I kept hearing in my head over and over, “Don’t worry. It’s our job”.

See you tomorrow. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 126

THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2020 AT 10:55AM

Good Morning everyone,

Thank you for wishing me well and for sharing your own cycling tales of woe. I’m on the mend.

Moving on…

At 430, we will meet for our weekly staff meeting. Announcements will be kept to a minimum so Domenic and Biaxin can present their wonderful work for the Ru’a Al Haram master plan at Mecca, Saudi Arabia – which they presented yesterday at 2am (that’s 0200hrs).

I promise it will be worth your time. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 127

03:01PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

When history is written about this time, what will it say? In 10 years things will still be clear and in the collective consciousness of the world but what about in 100 years? Will our pandemic, our social upheaval and our divisive politics be specifically remembered? One-hundred years after the Spanish Flu, how much do you really know about it other than it existed - even though fifty million people died?

What will recede in time? What will be broadcast through the ages?

Will we be remembered by future generations for those who won the battle against the virus but lost the war on climate change? Will we be remarkable for being an advanced society and yet, inexplicably, choose to propagate (and even celebrate) the combustion engine and thus slowly boiling our collective lobster pot? Will that, through the prism of time, look as obvious and clear to them as the benefits of washing ones hands and wearing a mask is to us today?

Something to think about. See you Monday. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 130

MONDAY, JULY 27, 2020 AT 02:13AM

Good Morning everyone,

On Friday I questioned out loud how we will appear to future generations. History will judge us but it will also clarify what was signal and what was noise – something we can’t do without the benefit of their hindsight.

I admire Nelson Mandela and visited his prison cell on Robben Islandthe Alcatraz of Cape Town - where he was imprisoned for 18 years. In an act of grace and humanity, he forgave his captures, in part, because he knew that the tone he set upon his release would reverberate across all generations, current and future. Mandela was the embodiment of the change he wanted to see in a post-Apartheid South Africa – charismatic, intelligent, disciplined and, of course, tough.

The quote, “It always seems impossible, until its done” is fittingly attributed to Mandela, whether it’s true or not. Only time will tell.

Back in our own country, yesterday marked 100 days until our presidential election.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 131

TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020 AT 04:14PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

The day is moving quickly so I thought you would be interested in knowing the firm-wide initiatives that I have been working on today:

! 2020 Business Plan Re-Forecast

! Terry Paterni (CFO) and his team have been working to forecast our fees for the second half of the year. The initial results are that our fees are tracking closely to when we last reviewed our annual business plan in March at $275m. While that is down from what we thought last December ($310m), it is still the envy of many, many firms. The key to making our plan is winning new work to replace the backlog we are earning every month.

! Collaboration: How can we increase the amount and quality of our cross-firm collaboration which has proven to be HOK’s ‘unfair advantage’?

! Anne Fletcher (LA) and her team are working on quantifying how much collaboration we actually do and the benefits of working together in order to bring the best of HOK to every opportunity. They will be surveying about 400 people this week to understand more.

! Sustainability: How do we return to our status as the undisputed leader in sustainability?

! Anica Landreneau (Sustainable Consulting) and her team are doing some soul searching and looking at the root causes of how HOK, once the sole leader in the field, is being challenged by other firms and thought leaders. They are studying what it will take for us to re-establish ourselves in the market and reinforce sustainability as central to our design process.

! Federal Government Task Force: How can we grow our public sector client work?

! Elizabeth VanDerBeck (S+T) and her team are organizing a firmwide approach to identify, position and respond to work coming out of US federal agencies and departments. Her team evaluated and ultimately purchased a subscription-based software service that allows us to find and focus on design opportunities that suit our capabilities.

! Next Generation Presentations: How can we improve our on-screen presence?

! Brian Jencek (Planning) and his group are studying the non-verbal factors (lighting, clothing, camera position); the sketching tools (Miro, Unreal, Webex); the graphics (video, image and font sizes); and, the verbal presentations (the design story, firm culture and personalities –you and me) to put HOK – literally – in the best possible light.

That’s if for now. Have a good evening. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 132

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2020 AT 05:37PM

Good Evening everyone,

I am more aware of how the small things you do every day can quickly accumulate with time as a multiplier.

Sofia, for example, has become an expert at baking a specific kind of French bread, a boule, by tweaking one recipe every day for the last three months.

When I was going up, my older sister used to throw her extra change into one huge glass jar and match books into another after working her shift. With the benefit of time, she thought she could painlessly save a lot of money. Saving match books, on the other hand, was her way of keeping a journal of the places she’d been. After a two years and a few thousand dollars, the jar exploded under the pressure of the coinage which, in turn, caused the match jar to ignite. Her savings almost went up in flames, not to mention the house. Coincidentally, Acorns and Instagram work under the same principles, without the risk of fire.

OK, one last one: I read in the NYT Book Review about the fiction writer Elin Hilderbrand who, for the past seven years, has written two novels a year. She’s the mother of teenage boys but aims to get three hours of writing done a day. “If it doesn’t get done I don’t freak out…” she says, “…if you compile those three hours, 360 days a year, you will write two books.”

With time, it’s that easy!

See you tomorrow. Take Care, Riccardo

Good Morning everyone,

When Sofia-Marie was looking at colleges, the thing I hoped she would find was a community (or tribe as I later learned) – a life-long kindship with people which she missed growing up in seven schools in four countries. It was important for me to know who would be there for her lest she become “unmoored”.

Looking back, she found her tribe and within that tribe she found many sub-groups of cohorts, teams, alliances, rivals, and even hybrid tribes made up of outsiders from strange groups with names like MIT, BU and NYU. Monday, she starts her first job and, like us, she will become part of a work tribe made up of people with a collective identity who will depend on each other, share the work load, become friends and occasionally commiserate about the office at a local bar.

In some ways, our communities complete us as people and, like a series of Venn diagrams, overlap on each other with us (you, me and her) being the only thing they have in common. I hope Sofia-Marie comes to know what it’s like to experience “the collective effervesce” of a tribe and one day look up and say, as I do at HOK, these are my people.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 134

FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2020 AT 09:08AM

Good Evening everyone,

I hope you are well into your weekend by now. Enjoy your time away from your home-office for a little bit. We’ll see you next week.

Be safe. Take good care, Riccardo

AUGUST

DAY 137

MONDAY, AUGUST 03, 2020 AT 10:25AM

Good Morning everyone,

We received some great news on Friday that we have been selected to design the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire Science & Health Science Building. The Phase 1 construction cost is $84m with a possible second phase master planned for the same site. We’ve been pushing hard to establish ourselves in the S+T market and this win is one more step in that direction. This project also fits into a larger trend we are seeing across all of HOK, both in the US and abroad, in science education.

This is also a good reminder of all the things we must do in order to prevail against our competition. We used design to demonstrate our deep understanding of the program; we showed three ways to approach the design of the building; we situated the building in the context of the larger campus; we made a video to quickly explain what time would not allow us to do; we engaged our thought leaders from the S+T MBU; we deployed GraceWorks to help prep us; and, we spent time really getting to know our partners at Potter Lawson architects in order to present ourselves as one unified team.

It takes a village to get things done and this was no exception. I want to thank everyone who had a hand in this pursuit and give special mentioned to Daniel and Dallas who took on board all the advice that was thrown at them and then some.

Thanks. Take care, Riccardo

Good Morning everyone,

One of my first jobs was in the design and construction department at the old Children’s Memorial Hospital. In spite of working next to an active hospital, I don’t ever remember seeing anyone wearing surgical scrubs around Lincoln Park. Now living two blocks away, I see people in scrubs everywhere: waiting for buses and riding bikes; walking down the street and carrying take-out; wearing lanyards and sometimes sporting pony tails. During my recent visit to the emergency room, the nurses, with PPE over their scrubs, bantered through their masks about Caribbean vacations and barked at EMTs while working on me.

I would like to think that my primordial brain has been re-wired to search out teal in unconscious solidarity with healthcare workers. But the truth is that I’m probably seeing something that’s always been there, only now my awareness for color has been honed by incessant medical news and going over the handlebars. Either way, it’s good to see them.

Have a great day. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 139

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 05, 2020 AT 10:03AM

Good Morning everyone,

If you know a little about Lebanon and saw the news from there yesterday, I’m sure you were as heartbroken as my family was. Lebanon had been facing dual crises, the pandemic and hyperinflation (imagine: monthly inflation of 56%), and now this. It’s hard to watch so much harm heaped upon so much misery. Our friends there immediately described the blast and its aftermath as their 9/11.

Putting aside personal tragedies, we talked around the kitchen table about the sudden shocks to society we’ve lived through and soon we were reminded that we can and do prevail even when things at the time seem hopeless.

Every society has their crosses to bear and ours is no different. But seeing Beirut bombed out yesterday was a stark reminder that, 1) we can do something about our crisis (masks, social distancing and hand washing) and, 2) our situation, while bad, could be much worse.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 139

THURSDAY, AUGUST 06, 2020 AT 09:58AM

Good Morning everyone,

Join us this afternoon at 430 for a few announcements and to see the progress on the Chief Andrew Isaac Hospital in Alaska.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot happening around us so, drop Brooke or me a note if there are topics you would like us to touch upon during the call. Alternatively, you are always welcome to share what’s happening in your world.

See you later. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 140

FRIDAY, AUGUST 07, 2020 AT 01:45PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

As we continue to push our Chicago practice forward, some new project opportunities have come to light in S+T, Justice and Commercial (office). Talking with these clients, it seems that they’re beginning to look beyond the pandemic (understanding that it will be with us for a while) and trying, like us, to figure out how to do business anyway. It’s a hopeful sign – not yet a trend – but early signs that our clients (public and private) are taking steps to get on with it.

Looking across the firm, a few things worth noting:

St. Louis, San Francisco and Washington DC offices continue to do well and have the strongest pipelines for new work. Not coincidentally, their work comes from a wide range of projects and client types. Tampa office is again doing well as Florida is a particularly active market now. With LaGuardia well on its way to completion, New York is seeing opportunities in Healthcare and S+T but a lot of competition on everything they chase. Philadelphia office continues to do well.

Having survived Brexit and Covid-19, London may be the first to return to the office and has seen more prospects lately than in the previous 18 months, mainly driven by Healthcare and work in the Middle East. Canada’s A+T work has returned and they are seeing government spending in Healthcare and S+T. Even Interiors in Canada, once our largest interiors practice is showing signs of life. In Asia, the China recovery has been slow to catch on and the resurgence of Covid-19 and civil unrest in Hong Kong has stopped many project there.

Los Angeles is still active but is shifting away from Healthcare and Justice towards S+T. In Texas, clients are waiting for the pandemic to recede again however problems in the oil and gas economy will temper their recovery in A+T, Justice and Healthcare.

That’s the news. Have a safe weekend. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 143

MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2020 AT 12:36PM

Good Morning everyone,

Later this month we will begin to roll out unconscious bias training across HOK. The training will be done in groups of 40 and be completed for the US offices by the end of the year. The training will be led by Shirley Davis, Ph.D. Dr. Davis is an accomplished author and executive who speaks widely on the subject. She holds doctorate in Business and Organization Management and a Masters in HR Management.

According to what I am leaning, unconscious biases are learned stereotypes that are automatic, unintentional, deeply ingrained, universal, and able to influence behavior. Although we will be briefed next week about Dr. Davis’s specific training program, typically training is designed to expose our unconscious biases, provide tools to adjust automatic patterns of thinking, and ultimately eliminate discriminatory behaviors.

While this training may not change us or the world overnight, it’s an important beginning.

Look for the firm-wide announcement soon. I hope you will join me in participating.

Take care, Riccardo

TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2020 AT 08:47PM

Good Evening everyone,

I hope you were home and dry by the time the rains came yesterday.

The streets in our neighborhood were littered with debris when the sun came out. The night before, we barely beat the storm into Belmont Harbor after the skies to the north and south of us turned ominous and cracked with lightning. After a great run southeast, we turned north and struggled before we had to furl the sails, battened the hatches (literally) and b-line for port under power. It was a humbling reminder to us that Mother Nature calls the shots, not the weather app.

Tonight, we thought we would try a whiskey tasting which explains, in part, why this message is so late. I hope you are having a good evening, too.

Tomorrow’s another day. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 145

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020 AT 07:26PM Our Great Experiment

Good Evening everyone,

Brooke sent out a message yesterday to say that we are changing our weekly all-hands meetings to bi-weekly. It’s a good idea. I’m in favor of curtailing the time you have to be tethered to Teams, WebEx and Zoom. That said, as working from home becomes normalized, I worry that we won’t be able to keep from drifting apart. The thing we call HOK culture is at risk of becoming even more abstract and less important as we retreat inside our own heads with less time to come out.

When Alison and Dallas presented Chief Andrew Isaac hospital it got me thinking about how our client, a collection of native tribes strewn about Alaska, has managed to stay connected. As the design shows, sharing a common culture is a bulwark against drift.

Brian Philips’s article about the Iditarod sled dog race, Out in the Great Alone, captures what they have faced for millennium - the sheer vastness and emptiness of Alaska - which is larger than Spain, France and Germany combined and has fewer people than metro Dayton. “Four of its national parks — four — are bigger than Connecticut.”

DAY 146

THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2020 AT 02:53PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I settled into work today from my dining room while my daughter was well into her New York work day from the living room. After 146 days of this, my desk still looks noticeably temporary but hers, just a few weeks old, appears suspiciously permanent as if she’s been there (and will continue to be there) forever. Hmmm.

I would argue that she’s working much in the same transient way she worked in college (in random places surrounded by people doing unrelated stuff ). She became accustomed to setting up camp, making it home, and getting down to business. But I would be wrong and she would tell me so if she knew I was writing this. In spite of appearances, she’s anxious to get out of here and experience the rhythms of office life that most of us took for granted before the pandemic shook us by the lapels.

While I’m in less of a hurry to return to the office, I can’t quite accept the dining room table as my office either, no matter how long this goes on. Hmmm.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 149

MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2020 AT 03:31PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

We had our monthly Board of Directors meeting this morning. Here’s a few highlights from the discussion:

! Securing new commissions remains the most important and urgent responsibility of the Board.

! Financially, 2019 was a very strong year for HOK. In comparison, our year-to-date fees for 2020 are down 2% from this time last year. Profit is down 8%.

! Backlog (signed contracts) is above our 10 month benchmark. If we think of future fees as a measure of backlog plus ANC (projects awarded-not-contacted), then the total is down 16% from December.

! 20% of new commissions have been written off due to project cancellations. Some of these projects will return but we are being prudent in removing them from our future revenue assumptions.

! It is taking us 7 days longer to collect our fees compared to this time last year.

! All HOK offices are profitable for the year with the exception of one international office.

! Our financial position remains strong.

HOK is in an enviable position compared with the rest of the industry. If we keep delivering exceptional work, managing our business closely and winning our fair share of new projects, we will weather this storm and be even better positioned in the future.

Thanks for your hard work. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 150

TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2020 AT 02:09PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I’m not intending this to be political in any way but I hope you had a chance to watch at least some of the Democratic National Convention last night. I did but I’ll bet a lot of people didn’t have the time or stamina to watch what amounts to a four hour political commercial.

The convention was a good mix: two parts highly polished cable-news production; one part Zoom call featuring our fellow citizens who broadcasted from their living rooms reading the kind of non-script we would use at an interview. In spite of the skepticism I have about politics and fatigue I feel about political reporting on TV, I was captivated. Maybe it was because this year it was devoid of interruptions from expert commentary and standing ovations.

As I sat there though I kept wondering why, after fighting tooth and nail to run for office and selling your grandmother down the river once you’re there, do people do it? What makes it so foreign to us is that it’s hard to see ourselves in the people who run from president.

But occasionally nuggets of wisdom flow forth – the best of which was the west African proverb, “When you pray, move your feet.” Just one of the things I took away from Day 1. Three to go.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 151

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2020 AT 11:00AM

Good Morning everyone,

OK, I’ll resist the temptation to provide you my daily commentary on the convention except to say: vote.

Our Chris King in the Columbus office reminded me to remind you that the November election has a shortage of poll workers. Understandably, the virus has made a lot of volunteers, many of whom are retirees, reluctant to come forward this election season. For his part, Chris plans to take PTO to volunteer because in his words, “this election is too important to me to not get out there and help”.

Twenty-two countries, including Australia and Singapore, have compulsory voting but the United States is not amongst them. That said, we donate more of our time and our money to the causes we care about than any other country on the planet.

Voting is not the least we can do but it does give us the moral high ground to complain or gloat (or both) with impunity for the next four years. Try that in Singapore!

Take care (and vote).

Riccardo

DAY 152

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020 AT 03:02PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

We had a drink on our back deck last night with our Danish friends who just returned from Copenhagen. The conversation inevitably turned to the differences in approach to the pandemic between their home country and their adopted one.

Upon arrival in Denmark, they were immediately tested and were told to go home and self-quarantine until the results arrived. Using their personal identification number (CPR number) to both identify and locate them, they were notified the next day of their results (negative) via email. The CPR number links them automatically to all public services. No need to fill out forms.

Also, social distancing was reduced from two meters to one. Mask are used for close quarters only like riding public transport. Runners are not required to wear masks because, citing research, there is virtually no risk of spreading (or catching) the virus while in motion outdoors. Restaurants were filled. SAS airlines were flying at a quarter of their capacity. The ICUs are empty. They were then tested in twice more, once about a week later and then prior to leaving.

Upon arriving at O’Hare yesterday, they filled out a form with information the airlines and immigration already had (or could easily lie about), answered questions concerning any recent travel to China (not to Italy, Spain or France), and were free to go holding a pamphlet about COVID-19.

Take good care, Riccardo

FRIDAY, Our Great Experiment

AUGUST

21, 2020 AT 02:15PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I am amazed how fast the days have been going by lately but sometimes they can grind slowly.

I think part of the reason is that there’s no respite from the computer screen which beckons us from the other room like an unattended to child. But also because our main diversion is looking at another screen (or maybe the same screen) watching movies, Netflix, Tic-Tok and games, ironically like an unattended child.

Regardless, we labor more because our work so accessible to us – it’s just right over there on the dining room table. We are conditioned from school and working to do a little more, finish this and organize that, but unlike before there’s really no excuse not to. No train to catch. No traffic to beat. No dinner to make. No spinning class to attend. So our attitude becomes: I’ll just do it now while it’s on my mind and then I won’t have to worry about it later. Except the next thing you know, you’ve burned the candle for 12 hours and tomorrow comes and you’re exhausted. All that fatigue builds up and wears you down.

We have to pace ourselves, set limits to our work day, and just get up and change the scenery by taking time off – an hour here, a few days there – to recover.

MONDAY, Our Great Experiment

AUGUST 24, 2020 AT 01:36PM DAY 156

Good Afternoon everyone,

Jeffery Toobin is a CNN legal analyst and former supreme court clerk who writes about the law and The Court. Books about the legal system may grate on you the wrong way but I admire Toobin for trying to make the opaque clear and therefore more accessible to the rest of us. He demystifies a fairly arcane part of the government for those of us non-lawyers who care about such things but, let’s face it, most people could care less.

Enter Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

To my pleasant surprise, my daughter is part of a generation of young devotees who have deified Notorious RBG. The benefit of crossing rap culture with an arcane institution is that it attracts the otherwise unaware to the Justice’s compelling life story. Don’t get me wrong - Mrs. Ginsberg is no Biggie Smalls. And, she may not even be that notorious. But as Jeff Toobin says, “Simplicity rarely loses to complexity in the public square”.

DAY 157

TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2020 AT 05:44PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I trust everyone has had a good day. I’m going to call it a little early today and get some time on my new bike.

I hope you can escape, too. If only for a little while.

Take care, Riccardo

This post reminded me that, sometimes, escaping for a while is more important than to ‘keep on going’. It made me reflect on childhood and the freedom that a bike offered back then. That freedom remains today in a way that a car, walking or running can’t offer - to me, at least. A rush of wind across the face as I watch the world whizz by takes away the pressures of the day and reconnects the senses with nature. Chapeau to the humble bike and the glory of escaping on it; if only for a little while.

DAY 158

AT 03:44PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Two summers ago, we visited Portugal while my daughter was working in Lisbon. I wouldn’t say it was an epic trip but it had long arc and we covered a lot of ground. It began and ended in Lisbon but included Porto, the Duero Valley and Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.

Memory is a fickle thing and when I think about that trip – like most trips – it comes back to me first in fragments like: sardine tins from a sardine shop or the ubiquitous Portuguese cobble stones. From those few images, along with a picture of us standing in front of a restaurant just killing time, I can re-construct the entire experience visually in my head, similar to the way David Hockney captures time through photographic collages.

I love photographs which are latent with my personal experiences but I’m conscious of the fact that for you, the hidden beauty of my sardine tins is only skin deep.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 159

THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 2020 AT 11:00AM

Good Morning everyone,

From talking to our colleagues across the firm, it seems that the markets are loosening up a bit. I believe that clients have resigned themselves to the fact that this is going to go on for a while and they need to just get on with it. While there are hopeful signs, we are aware that the volume of new project opportunities is still below previous levels. But things are moving. Even the Obama Library has cleared the last few obstacles to becoming reality.

According to yesterday’s Trib, law suits opposing the project from Protect Our Parks (POP) has stalled in federal court. POP alleged that the City transferred the land improperly to the Obama Foundation and that the Library is not using the Jackson Park site, “for the greater good of citizens”. The court ruled against POP because they, “did not suffer actual harm” and that, “the plaintiffs are nothing more than ‘concerned bystanders’ and concerned bystanders are not entitled to press their claims in federal court”.

Even though I’m nothing more than a concerned bystander myself, I’m for the Obama Library because I think it will add to our great cultural institutions and bolster development on the South Side.

Have a good day. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 160

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2020 AT 05:48PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

As designers, we think visually and perceive the world through our natural gift. Your abilities make you unique amongst your family and friends and also, fun at parties. You may have realized early in life that you gravitated towards 3-dimensional puzzles or had spatial awareness others did not. Maybe you had an epiphany in geometry class, like I did, when all of a sudden everything seemed to come so easily while others struggled to see what you saw naturally.

In the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon’s character (Will) used an analogy to explain his exceptional gift to a friend: Mozart would see a piano and, “just know how to play”. While Will could always “just play things” like organic chemistry (it is a movie after all!), when he saw a piano all he could perceive, “was a box of wood”.

That brings me to what I saw last night during President Trump’s speech at the Republic National Convention. I wondered if my family and friends could see what I was seeing so clearly or if I was the one looking at a box of wood. What I saw was the President but what I perceived was monarch on the south lawn of the White House.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 163

MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020 AT 12:31PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I’m not the rabid sports fan I used to be when I had more time. But like everyone, I had my favorites growing up and they signaled the changing of the seasons to me: baseball meant winter was over, and college football meant the summer was about to break. Back then, I rarely watched more than a few games a week but the sounds from those games became the soundtrack to my life. Until it was gone, I didn’t know how much I missed something so common and ubiquitous.

When I moved outside the US, the games were sometimes broadcast but not the audio feeds. Little by little I lost interest but I soon became captivated by other sports in the same way - by sound. The traditional sports I grew up with made way for new ones that marked the calendar with the precision of the local church bell: The Australian Open in January, Rugby Sevens in April and the Tour de France in July.

Now, back in Chicago and a stone’s throw from Wrigley, the sounds of the crowd, the popping of beer cups and the urgency of the announcers’ call are all missing for me. Philosopher George Berkeley asked the question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make sound?” Insofar as the crack of the bat is concerned, I would say yes – we can hear it - but it’s just not the same. And I’m not really listening anymore anyway.

Have a good week. Take care, Riccardo

Not having sports for some time made me realize the glory and tradition of people coming together to watch a live event. Even when live sports returned the lack of fans was so strange. The pipped-in crowd noise was weird, but the silence they were covering up was weirder. With noise overlays and cardboard crowds watching the game at home started to return to normal, but there was a strange sensation knowing it was all fake.

DAY 165

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 01, 2020 AT 06:32PM

Good Evening everyone,

The other day I mentioned the epiphany I once experienced in Geometry class when everything came together for me and I could understand at once the relationship between math and the physical world that I was so facile with (see attached and Johnson Solids). For a brief shining moment, I knew what it must have been like when mathematicians first discovered the rules, then invented the symbols, which made sense of the world.

For me, that was just the tip of an iceberg that I am still trying to understand but, in contrast to then, I’m no longer worried about it sinking my ambitions of becoming an architect.

I now enjoy books about math like, A Most Elegant Equation: Euler’s Formula and the Beauty of Mathematics or The Weil Conjectures or David Foster Wallace’s, Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity (my favorite). In their own way, each of these allows me to enjoy the beauty and complexity of math without the worry of having to do a problem set at the end of the chapter.

I hope you have time to discover something as interesting and provocative as these books were for me. And yes, somewhat random, too.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 166

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 03, 2020 AT 6:15PM

Good Evening everyone,

Thanks for joining the First Thursday meeting just now.

I appreciated the presentations on Passive House and Lessons Learned - both were a reminder to me that we are in a profession dedicated to continuous improvement or Kaizen as the Japanese would say. Kaizen actually means “change for better”. I prefer to think of what we do as changing things around us for the better both large (pandemic, climate change, racial equality) and small (reveal details, expansion joints, water fountain placement).

Japan is a study in Kaizen. It’s a wonderful place – truly full of wonder. Or, as a close HOK colleague used to say, “so peculiar, but in a good way”. But that’s a subject for another day.

Have a good night and safe weekend.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 167

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 04, 2020 AT 2:14PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

This Labor Day weekend most of us will take a break from working to relax and enjoy the last vestiges of summer. Most of us will not be celebrating the rise labor unions or the contributions of laborers, per se.

It’s cliché to say that we’ve become disassociated from the origin and meaning of things like Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Veterans Day (or, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to be precise). They’ve become abstractions to us – vaguely familiar yet very different.

Maybe it doesn’t matter if we celebrate these holidays for reasons other than those which brought them into being in the first place rather, we imbue our own meaning into them and celebrate that. Kind of like the moai statues of Easter Island - no one knows how or why they were built but that doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy them anyway.

So in 2020 Labor Day means time off, family and barbecues or at least it did in 2019. Maybe next year Labor Day will celebrate new heroes in labor like healthcare workers or USPS mail carriers right alongside the old ones like IBEW Local 1 (where I was briefly a member), NTEU (where my best friend is union president) and HOK (where you literally make the world a better place).

Enjoy it. Stay safe. Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 171

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 08, 2020 AT 2:16PM

Good Morning everyone,

I hope you had an enjoyable weekend and were able to put aside for the moment the incessant news of the pandemic, presidential politics and the scandalous activities of one Mr. Novak Djokovic.

The weather has certainly taken a turn and it reminded me, yet again, that winter will return. Growing up here I always felt that summer had the effect of erasing my memory of the harshness of the winters past. So after a lovely summer, I would subconsciously convince myself that last winter was an anomaly and this year would be different. But the weather gods in Chicago are cruel and, by the time there was a persistent chill in the air and I was gearing up for another bitter January, a glorious Indian Summer weekend would emerge and again mess with my head.

It’s too soon for all this talk of winter, I know. Sorry about that. I’m just going to enjoy today. Tomorrow’s another day.

Have a good (short) week. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 172

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2020 AT 4:24PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

The Executive Committee is meeting this week for an extended period of time, as we do every quarter, to survey the status of our firm and make strategic decisions about our future. This week’s meeting take on an added importance given the shifting business landscape and general uncertainty due to the ongoing pandemic.

With that as a backdrop, today we looked at a number of things like our financial performance to date, business development activity, risks to the firm (including claims) and how these things are current impacting our performance and how they will influence our plans for 2021. It’s too early to talk about conclusions but the list below gives you a sense of things we’ve been discussing:

! 2020 financial performance (current and projected through December)

! Overhead cost savings (now and in the future): rent, travel, in person meetings, investment in markets

! 2021 Business Planning priorities and goals

! Strategic talent acquisition

! Reinforcing our commitment to sustainability in our work and to AIA 2030

!

ExCom communication goals and strategy

! Preserving our culture while WFH and when we (all or in part) return to the office

! Policies and guidelines for returning to the office

I’ll report more later. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 173

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 AT 11:38AM

Good Morning everyone,

I’m on a lunch break from today’s quarterly ExCom meeting. These are important meetings and the discussions are great (and sometimes even heated) but they are necessary for us to debate, get alignment and move the firm forward. Not to mention, they keep us connected.

Meeting via Teams is a little less effective than meeting at a remote location where we can literally be disconnected for a few days. That’s not possible now so, I find myself drifting in and out of the conversation at times and, judging from how my partners appear on screen, they seem to be doing the same. It’s easier to stay focused when we are all sitting around the same table working on the same problem.

It’s true what I heard Thomas Friedman say last night after my long day of intense meetings: “It’s amazing what you say after you listen.”

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 177

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 AT 7:01PM

Good Evening everyone,

It’s been a very busy day beginning this morning with our monthly Board meeting. While the firm is on solid footing, we have to constantly tend to our sprawling dominion. In the meeting, we reviewed the status of each office (most are holding up well) and we discussed at length how we, as a firm, can get our sustainable mojo back.

The question we’ve been debating is this: what does it take to be the undisputed leader in sustainability? Sure, we’re doing better than most but that’s not good enough anymore. For years at HOK, sustainability was the single thing that we could rally around and that bound us together, regardless of office location, market or expertise. Sustainability was our touchstone and that’s been lost, or at least diluted, in the last several years. So, we recommitted ourselves, and the resources of the firm, to put sustainability back on the top of the design agenda. How to do that exactly was part of the debate and will be the subject of our annual two-day board meeting next month. Stay tuned for more.

Meanwhile here in Chicago, we been tending to Dan’s departure, cultivating a new crop of clients and delivering the work we have in hand. All the while, we are positioning HOK for new opportunities now that will become the design projects of tomorrow in order to keep this place humming along. Sustainable in every possible way.

Have a good week. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 178

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2020 AT 5:54PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I appreciate everyone rallying to pick up the marketing and business development pieces and speak with our clients, consultants and friends about our recent changes in marketing. The reactions I have received so far have been generally along the lines of hey, we understand and our relationship is with HOK. We know that we’re in good hands.

I know everyone is working flat out and working on multiple projects or marketing pursuits or both and putting our fires along the way. I wish I could say that things are going to smooth out and normalize soon but I suspect that we are going to be running around like crazy for a while yet.

That said, it is a marathon not sprint and I want to encourage you to raise your hand when (not if ) you need help – of any kind. There’s no extra credit for suffering in silence and struggling to keep up this torrid pace. We know that we are asking a lot of you and we expect that, from time to time, you are going to have to call in the Calvary. Some day you might be the recipient of those horses and some day you may be riding to someone’s rescue. Either way, please know that we’re all in this together.

Hang in there. Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 180

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 AT 12:36AM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I am going to go ahead and cancel today’s all-staff meeting mainly because everyone is very busy and a little distracted. Also, our agenda was a bit thin - probably due to being busy and distracted. Or is that just me?

Anyway, I don’t want to miss an opportunity to at least hear from you so, please feel free as always to let me what’s on your mind and I’ll do my best to respond and share what I know.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 181

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2020 AT 9:33AM

Good Afternoon everyone,

This may or may not be the 181st day of Our Great Experiment. alex.kuchinskas@hok.com went to great lengths to postulate a theorem suggesting that my calculation of Day X is incorrect (when Day X = Today and Day Y = Yesterday ≥ March 17th whereby Day X = (Day Y +1). Furthermore, he has further calculated the “inaccuracy” to several decimal places or 2.162162162% greater than I have been reporting. In his critique which runs several sentences long, he believes today is our 185th (i.e. Day X = 185)

For those of you keeping score at home, yes this our 185th day in captivity. However in my defense, I’ve been only counting my WFH days (when Day X = Today and Day Y = Yesterday ≥ March 17th and Day Z = Total PTO whereby Day X = (Day Y +1) - Z. Let the record show that currently, Z = 4. Therefore, Day X = 181 in my book.

Readers of this daily missive are keenly aware of my inability at key times to proofread thoroughly and yet they indulge me my slight inaccuracies (say ≠ 2.163%) because they appreciate my messages (or because I’m the boss). Either way, they’re not intent on “proving me wrong”. Anyway, Alex would have seen my logic if he’d been paying attention which he wasn’t. So there. Take care, Riccardo (p.s.: I’ll fix the count on Monday)

DAY 188

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2020 AT 6:21PM

Good Evening everyone,

I’ve written before that Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been an unlikely inspiration to a generation of college students which includes my daughter and her cohort. They can quote RBG’s positions chapter and verse:

Journalist: When will there be enough women on the Supreme Court? RBG: When there are nine. People are shocked. There’s been nine men and nobody ever raised a question about that.

We have lost 200,000 souls to the pandemic and, unless COVID has visited your family or friends, we’ve become numb to their passing – so incomprehensible the loss. And yet when the news broke on Friday night (Rosh Hashanah) that the Justice had died, we found ourselves viscerally reacting to her passing - perhaps a sign of all we’ve lost.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 189

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2020 AT 4:31PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Today I visited a project site, the first time that I’ve been out of my home office for work for, well…189 days.

The streets downtown were eerily quiet. I got that feeling that you get when you know shouldn’t be being out in the middle of the day when everyone else is inside buckled down. Kind of like playing hooky. Maybe because I was outside, in fall-like weather, in September with no particular place to be but it made me think of college in the Midwest.

While that thought was still fresh in my mind, I returned home where my daughter was working on something to do with music industry royalties. To illustrate a point, she played Kygo’s 2019 remix of Whitney Houston’s 1990 song “Higher Love”. What she didn’t know was Whitney was actually covering Steve Winwood’s 1986 classic which came out when I was in college. In the fall, to be precise.

Take care, Riccardo

Good Afternoon everyone,

Just a short note here to talk a bit about business development. Remember, business development it’s not the prevue of a select few. We all can contribute.

A large component of BD is based on developing relationships, gathering intelligence about the market and sharing our story. You don’t have to remember or even necessarily know HOK’s global BD strategy although it’s fine if do. You can help raise HOK’s profile and increase interest in the firm by talking about what you are working on and about your own (positive!) experience – which are both interesting to people and easy to remember. If you share your story, they are likely to share theirs. So, stay connected: reach out to existing, former and future clients, consultants, friends, countrymen whomever – even if it’s just to say hello and to ask what’s happening in their world.

DAY 191

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 AT 8:04PM

Good Evening everyone,

In light of all that is happening around the country (the pandemic, social unrest, economic instability, election-year politics), there is no better time to talk about how this firm and the work we do intersects with the important issues of our time. Take our Justice Business Unit for example.

The JBU touches each one of these topics in important and indelible ways: In some ways intuitively like law enforcement and incarceration and, in other less obvious ways like mental health, substance abuse, community engagement, labor and yes, civil and criminal justice.

We are all keenly aware of the controversy surrounding the role of architects in buildings that serve the justice continuum. When Jeff Goodale joined HOK eleven years ago, he did so to leverage the HOK platform to transform not only our justice practice but to reimagine that continuum with clients and stakeholders. He also spoke about the practice in ways that no one had before where human dignity and reducing recidivism drives the design approach.

I have asked Jeff talk about our JBU during our First Thursday meeting next week. Kim will also be on hand to offer her perspective. I am hoping that we can have open and frank discussion and that you take the opportunity to ask Jeff, Kim and myself questions – maybe some uncomfortable questions – about how we are confronting the important issue of our time.

See you then. Take care, Riccardo

I thank Riccardo and Jeff for being open to this challenging conversation and I hope we continue to have an open dialogue in the future.

I am reminded of another post where Riccardo references the need to avoid confirmation bias. The Justice practice is one where we cannot afford to take our actions for granted and must always question our ambitions and performance. I hope our office continues this conversation transparency and accountability moving forward.

“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.’

- Cornel West

192

Good Afternoon everyone,

Much has been said about the role unconscious bias plays in perpetuating social and racial inequity in our society. In fact I’m happy to report that the first unconscious bias training session have already begun. Our sessions are being scheduled as we speak. Meanwhile, today I wanted to talk about another kind of bias, confirmation bias, which can blind us from being truly critical of our own work and beliefs. It’s human nature to look for things that confirm our prior convictions and then use that as evidence that we’re on the right track.

I was on a call earlier today regarding a project in Canada where we were 100% sure that we had arrived at the only logical solution. We reassured ourselves – we had reviewed it with everyone we could and they all agreed. But then I got a sinking feeling - did we make our decisions based on our best judgment of competing views or, had we simply confirmed our solution with like-minded people or, indeed, with only people we like? After thinking about it again, I believe we’re on the right track but then again, I would think that, wouldn’t I.

Confirmation bias is in the news because it is at play in the development of vaccines. To ensure against confirmation bias, researchers rely on double-blind experiments where neither they nor their subjects know if they are receiving the drug being tested or a placebo, thus ensuring that the most effective medication is developed. Unfortunately, in design there are no placebos and reasonable people can disagree. However, finding the best way forward, in design or in life, usually starts with acknowledging the existence of our own bias.

Have a good weekend. Take care,

Riccardo

DAY 194

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 AT 5:36PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

After being inside all week, I was looking forward to Saturday being a warm, summer-like day - or so it was advertised. What we got instead was brooding, overcast sky that, frankly, was a bit of a downer.

It reminded me of a LA weather phenomena known as June Gloom which is produced when the humid marine layer moves inland from the coast. The effect is a chilly, grey blanket which lays low over the westside. It surprises many visitors to southern California beaches who expect endless sunshine and blue skies and get a powder grey pall in its place. It’s similar to the pollution-driven haze that moves in from southern China and hangs over sub-topical Hong Kong (albeit unnaturally so).

In any case, it makes me appreciate the sun when I least expect it, like right now, as the sun streams through my westside window.

I hope your week is off to a good start. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 195

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2020 AT 5:13PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I know watching the presidential debate tonight is no way to relax after a long day at the salt mine. However, if we’re lucky, we might be witnesses to history in real time.

Like when Reagan was asked if his age would be an impediment to serving in such a grueling role. “I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience”, he said. The jig was up then and there and Mondale he knew it. Ironically up until then, Reagan was prone to being tongue tied and misspeaking in public. But after delivering that line, Walter Mondale couldn’t help but laugh and then got crushed at the polls a few weeks later.

Anyway, these days we can get the salient points and unrehearsed gaffs ad infinitum on cable news programs and social media. But for me, watching a debate is actually like I watching professional athletes ply their craft because while watching I constantly ask myself: how do they do that? Followed by, why would they put themselves through that? On the other hand, maybe we should just forget the whole thing and heed Instagram’s advice:

Let’s put the tree up and call it a year.

Enjoy your evening. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 196

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 AT 10:00AM

Good Morning everyone,

Well, that didn’t go like I thought. If you saw the debate last night, then you did witness history. Not the kind I was expecting but, then again, it never is.

No disrespect to the late RBG but notorious actually means being famous for something bad which she was decidedly not. But that title, ironic as it was, inspired more people to be like her.

Now, we’ve become notorious for our incivility and that was on full display last night for the world to see.

Sadly, nobody will be inspired by Notorious USA.

Take good care, Riccardo

OCTOBER

DAY 197

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 01, 2020 AT 9:24AM

Good Morning everyone,

Please join us at 430pm to learn more about our Justice Business Unit and to discuss the philosophical underpinnings of our practice and the challenges/opportunities working with public sector clients responsible for the judicial, law enforcement and social infrastructure in this country.

We want to hear from you, as well. Your questions and comments are highly encouraged.

See you later today. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 198

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 02, 2020 AT 5:09PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

If there’s one thing I choose to take away from the news that President Trump has contracted the novel coronavirus, then it’s this: all of us are susceptible. It’s a sobering reminder that if the man who literally travels in a protective bubble designed to keep him out of harm’s way can contract this virus, then so can we.

Tempting as it would be to revel in the misfortune of others, especially others with whom we disagree, that’s neither a trait we admire nor one we should perpetuate. Yes, we have our political differences and yes, some of those differences are existential in nature but let’s not be unkind.

Let’s instead recommit ourselves to wearing masks, washing our hands and practicing social distancing and pray that what goes around, does not come around.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 201

MONDAY, OCTOBER 05, 2020 AT 6:46PM Riccardo Mascia

Good Evening everyone,

People have compared the act of turning our large and complex organization to that of steering an aircraft carrier. In reality, HOK’s controls are more twitchy than that and thus susceptible to all kinds of forces that can blow us off course. So, it’s more arcuate to say that our agility is more like landing on the deck of a carrier rather than steering one. Looking back from whence we came, this year we’ve proven that if we need to change the flight plan (as it were), we can. And we did - very successfully.

Now with the end of the year in sight, we are beginning to plan for 2021. Next week, we will begin when the board of directors meets to set the priorities and goals for new year. We draw upon our own empirical data and the collective intelligence from across the firm to construct our annual plan.

“The future ain’t what it used to be” so we have to be nimble, watch our instruments, and adjust our trajectory as necessary.

DAY 202

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 06, 2020 AT 10:03AM

Good Morning everyone,

The pandemic has disrupted the rhythms of our daily lives and voting on Election Day, November 3rd, may also present some new logistical challenges like: arranging for child care, waiting in line, navigating traffic and social distancing.

We want to give you ample time to accommodate whatever you might encounter without the pressure of hastily returning to work or using PTO. Therefore while I expect many will vote by mail, for those who need extra time to vote in-person, simply charge your time away from work to 60.02020.03 (Management).

To find your voter registration status, polling locations and other helpfulinformation, visit:

! For Illinois: https://elections.il.gov/Default.aspx

! For Indiana: https://indianavoters.in.gov/

! For Ohio: https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/

If you have any questions, just let Brooke know.

Take care, Riccardo

Good Afternoon everyone,

You’ve heard me say that we’re not in the paper architecture business— we’re in the business of getting things built. Our built work is our product and everything we touch on the way to making that product must be infused with design thinking. Everything. I don’t have to tell you how difficult it is to deliver on that simple axiom.

The longer I practice, the more I really admire a good building – even ones done by our competitors – because I know how many obstacles needed to be overcome to get something well designed, let alone well built. Today, two of our projects been recognized for being exceptional by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design:

In the Kentucky International Convention Center we completely revitalized a part of a city and in the Consumers Credit Union Headquarters we transformed a company’s culture - far exceeding the modest ambitions of both clients.

Let both of these projects serve to validate our mission and push us to exceed our own ambitions in everything we do.

Well done! Take care, Riccardo

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 08, 2020 AT 6:27PM

Good Evening everyone,

The Great Chicago Fire began on this day 149 years ago. The fire started around Taylor Street burned north by northeast past Armitage and east to the Lake, just clipping our location at 333. Every kid growing up in Chicago is taught the story and I’m still reminded of The Fire every time I pass the Water Tower on Michigan Avenue.

What would it have been to like to have left Chicago on the morning of October 8th only to return two days later to see that 17,500 buildings had burnt to the ground. Imagine the emotional toll and the financial burden, once the smoke cleared, of a $222m bill - $4.6 billion 2018 dollars. The Fire exposed the precarious tinder box upon which the cities were built. Our City, as it was, wasn’t sustainable.

As calamitous as it was, Chicago rallied and became an innovator in city planning, architecture and construction. Twenty-two years later it hosted 21 million visitors at the World’s Columbian Exposition signifying that Chicago had arrived as one of the world’s great cities. Its transformation complete.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 205

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 09, 2020 AT 1:54PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I was speaking to Paul Gogan in Toronto today. He has made a point of reminding our Canadian brethren to use this time to establish a sustainable, daily exercise routine. He’s noticed that we’re picking up some unhealthily habits working from home. Too many of us are eating lunch in front of our computer screens or, in my case, while standing up in the kitchen, for example.

Get up and move around; take a walk around the neighborhood; and/or establish a regimen over the next few months before the weather closes in so that you (we) have established a good habit which will carry you (us) through the winter.

I told him that it would also be helpful for us to have our Thanksgiving feast(s) in October, which they will be doing this weekend.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 208

MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2020 AT 6:12PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

It seems like we’re all hitting the ground running right out of bed these days and I’m no exception. As much as I try, it’s becoming harder and harder to stick to a simple routine of sending out a message each morning to help start your day. So, I’ve been sharing these notes closer to your suppertime than to breakfast – doughnuts for dinner as it were. Anyway, here’s something:

When Charles’s Eames was asked: “What are the boundaries of design?”, he responded, “What are the boundaries of problems?” There’s a cold reality in that response but also a confidence and optimism. Problems have always encircled us but there is little we cannot solve using our unique gifts. That’s what’s been on my mind all day – hopefully fuel for thought for you in any form.

Have a great week. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 209

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2020 AT 4:47PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

We just wrapped up our first day of our Board Meeting. Here’s what we discussed:

! Our performance is solid through nine months. 62% of our fees come from the MBUS.

! Winning new commissions continues to be the most important issue we face.

! We were asked to express our personal commitment to drive sustainability in our practices. (more on that later)

! The AIA Large Firm Round Table reported that healthcare, S+T and civic/government are growth markets for 2021.

We also had a training session with Dr. Shirley Davis regarding how to approach difficult (“taboo”) topics that arise in the workplace such as: racial injustice, mental health, gender equality, and diversity/inclusion? Here are a few of the many things we discussed:

! We’re in three pandemics at once: health, economic, and equity inclusion.

! Trustworthiness is the foundation of all meaningful discussions.

! Empathy and listening are key to understanding.

! Compensate for your blinds spots by surrounding yourself with people who don’t think like you.

We wrapped up by setting out our PR/communications strategy for next year around our major initiatives: sustainability and diversity/inclusion.

More tomorrow. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 210

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2020 AT 4:49PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

We’ve concluded our semi-annual ‘in-person’ board meeting. Today, we discussed:

! Our business plan aspirations, challenges and guardrails for 2021.

! Risks, opportunities and timeline (not this year) for when we return to office.

! Goals and actions re our commitment to diversity (by office), recruiting and scholarships.

! Update on Board initiatives – sustainability (yesterday), collaboration, federal government task force and next gen presentations.

! Design: Review projects with strong sustainable stories: Royal Brampton London (urban planning), University of Michigan CIT (architecture, medical planning, interiors) and Accenture New York (interiors).

I think I can speak for Peter and Jeff when I say that we covered the waterfront – we saw and discussed a lot. It’s daunting but also invigorating. We’ll share more over the next few months.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 211

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020 AT 7:00PM

Good Evening everyone,

I want to thank Doug and Domenic for the presentation of the IU Health project and the discussion that followed. I’m in awe of the scale and ambition of the whole undertaking. It foreshadows the real impact we will have on the thousands of people who, over the next fifty years, will walk through those doors and leave in better shape than they entered. We also have a hand in reimagining and fixing a big part of a damaged American city— and who knows how long the positive effects that will have on the current and future residents of Indianapolis.

Finally, we touched on Oswego achieving LEED Silver. Congratulations to everyone who touched that project (and many did). Ironically, I was in awe of the scale and the ambition of it, as well!

All this portends well for us, our futures, because history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

Have a good night. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 212

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 AT 5:21PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Occam’s Razor intrigued me so much so that it was the name, not the theory, that drew me to it. Then I learned that it’s also known by a more common but decidedly less cool name: the law of parsimony. Both can be paraphrased as, “simpler explanations [or hypotheses] are generally better than more complex ones”.

It’s useful to remember as conspiracies theories and alternative facts abound. But, there is also an element of Occam’s Razor in design because we’re taught to, “keep it simple”. Einstein is said to have summarized it like this: “Everything should be kept as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

I couldn’t agree more. Have a good weekend.

Take care, Riccardo

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2020 AT 5:59PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Who amongst is truly apolitical? Or worse: who’s actually not apolitical but has to appear to be so?

I’ve always been intrigued with people who, as a condition of their employment, cannot share their opinions, expresses their preferences, or even register to vote lest they give up the appearance of neutrality –politically speaking. US Military officers go out of their way to keep their political affiliations private and Secret Service agents never talk out of school because the job requires both an intimacy and detachment with the person they are protecting.

Enter former White House Photographer (Reagan and Obama), Pete Souza who recounted his experiences in the documentary, The Way I See It. Normally, a person in his support role would be resigned to be a mute witness to history. However, in spite of his unique position, Souza felt compelled to share what he observed in order to compare our current and former president. In this film, the photographer does the talking.

His is a story well told and it energized me in the final stretch of this election season.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 216

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2020 AT 5:30PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

The first draft of our Business Plan for 2021 is due this week. As impressive as it sounds, the business plan is really just a good road map for the year ahead. Surprisingly few inputs drive the plan (fees and expenses) which in turn inform our decision making for the year. Expenses can be empirically derived fairly accurately from previous years but forecasting fees is more art than science.

Our future fees come in two components: fees from existing projects and fees from future projects. Future projects are divided into the project opportunities we know about and are positioning for today, say the University of Chicago lab building, and those we know will come but can only guess from where. It’s pretty simple really but does include reading the tea-leaves.

The design business is notoriously difficult to predict especially those projects yet unknown to us and next year will be no different. So, the best we can do is to use our map as guide, not as a fixed template, to help us find our way during the year. We’ll share more specifics in the weeks and months to come.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 217

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2020 AT 4:36PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I’m going to get outside and get some fresh air before the sun dips behind the buildings in my neighborhood.

I hope you are having a good day. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 218

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020 AT 12:05PM

Good Morning everyone,

Triumph over adversity stories inspire us and yet are so improbable and colossal in scale that it’s hard for us to relate to them. Most of us are happy to count our small victories like blessings but rarely do our daily triumphs have a big impact on the wider world like say, the safe return of Apollo 13 did.

The live performance, The Köln Concert, by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett was a major triumph over minor adversity. What did he overcome? An inadequate instrument – a much smaller, out of tune baby grand piano. Annoyed but undeterred and beginning around midnight, Jarrett physically coaxed and cajoled a beat up old back stage piano into the best-selling solo jazz and the best-selling piano albums in history. And it was all improvised. Live. The producer Manfred Eicher later said: “Probably [ Jarrett] played it the way he did because it was not a good piano. Because he could not fall in love with the sound of it, he found another way to get the most out of it.”

You don’t have to be a jazz lover or audiophile to be moved by The Köln Concert. Sofia’s father was both when he introduced it to me nearly 25 years ago. The fact that Jarrett “found another way” and made something extraordinary in less than optimal conditions is what makes his triumph our inspiration. Have a listen.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 219

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2020 AT 10:07AM

Good Morning everyone, I’m taking the day off for a little rest and relaxation. Have a good weekend and we’ll see you back here Monday morning. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 222

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2020 AT 4:16PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Did it just snow? OK, notwithstanding a random 80-degree day in November, which can happen, the cold weather is officially back.

While fall is beautiful with its crisp air, changing leaves and wood smoke wafting from somewhere you just can’t quite pinpoint, winter is something to be tolerated, rushed through and avoided if you can. But for people who live in harsher climates like Minnesota, with their nine months of winter and three months of bad weather, they actually embrace the cold and the snow in ways that we in Chicago don’t. While we’re indoors huddled around a heat source and a drink, they’re outside rushing around doing errands and fishing through hole.

With our own brand of watering hole closed or closing and winter staring us in the face, we have to rally. Like those Russians who muster their courage every day to take a dip below the pack ice. True, vodka is involved but, if they didn’t swim in the winter, what else would get them out of the house?

So, let’s remember to get up and get outside - and maybe track down where the fire was.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 223

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2020 AT 7:22PM

Good Evening everyone,

Writing for the last several months I’ve been trying to balance information about our work with other interests that are tangential to what we do. Sometimes it’s a stretch to make the connection but I assure you that in my head everything is related.

But since work is home and home is work, there’s more overlap than before. Take our ability to go down the “rabbit hole” for instance. In most of the rest of the English speaking world they refer to getting lost in a “rabbit warren” which I would suggest to you is more applicable to what we do. We’re more apt to chase things, conceptually anyway, in and out of a series of interconnected rooms than down one, deep, singular hole.

Anyway, that’s where I was today - lost in a warren. Both at work and at home. And now its past 700pm and I have little to show for it other than a profound sense of time lost but not necessarily wasted! Who knows when all those detours I took today will come in handy. Am I right?

Have a good night. Take care, Riccardo

Good Afternoon everyone,

Sadly, we were not selected for the Chicago Fire training facility master plan. There is no way to put a good face on this one: it hurts. The owner of the team (and founder of Morningstar) Joe Mansueto elected to go with a small, unknow firm from Kansas City. Our strategy was to highlight our sport and planning experience while putting HOK on Mansueto’s (and JLL’s) radar for future opportunities. In that respect, we achieved an important objective. A silver lining? It’s not every day we get invited to show and tell directly to market makers like Mansueto.

In other terrible news, we were not shortlisted for Illinois State Crime Lab or selected for small renovations at SC Johnson. While we don’t yet know why, it’s a stark reminder that the competition is fierce (and getting fiercer) and nothing is preordained. We have other opportunities we’re chasing, in healthcare, justice and S+T, so we just have to knock the dust off and carry on.

As promised, new as it happens – good and bad.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 225

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2020 AT 2:45PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Gordon Wright spoke at our mentoring pop-up event this afternoon where he discussed trends in remote working. His presentation drew upon stats from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Here’s a few takeaways:

While 56% of us report working more hours, 63% of us “feel guilty” about working from home. Yet, 94% of supervisors say we are as productive working from home as we were in the office. Said another way: we are more self-critical and self-conscious about our own performance than we appear to others.

Also, “home” will be a more accepted place to work (presumably guiltfree) in the future. Gordon predicts that three years from now, only 50% our clients’ employees will be in the office daily – but not necessarily the same 50% from day to day. He doesn’t believe that will equate to a major reduction in office space rather the same amount used differently. An interesting byproduct of WFH will be that there will be fewer commuters on Mondays and Fridays.

As for HOK and our insatiable need to collaborate, Gordon’s best guess is that our offices will be around 70% capacity. Take all this will a grain of salt, Gordon says. It could all change tomorrow.

Thanks Gordon. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 226

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2020 AT 2:17PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Just after I wrote to you earlier this week lamenting our losses, lo and behold, we were shortlisted for the UW Madison Computer, Data and Information Science building and the Kane County needs assessment and facilities master plan! Two important projects that drew the competition out in numbers. Interviews are in the next two weeks and, all things considered, we like our chances.

Across the firm, the first pass at the 2021 business plans have been submitted. The Operations Committee, led by Terry, and the Business Strategy Committee, led by yours truly, will spend the next few weeks pouring over the plans to make sure the numbers match the words and vice versa. Each committee is made up of a half a dozen people who try to poke holes in the plans to make sure we’re not diluting ourselves – one way or another – about next year.

The process is effective yet Terry would agree that “led by” us might be too strong of a phrase given the participants - “cajoled” or “herded” might be more accurate.

Have a good weekend. Take good care, Riccardo

NOVEMBER

DAY 229

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 02, 2020 AT 3:22PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Normally when life throws you a curve ball, you never see it coming. But, tomorrow is one of those rare times when you know it’s on the way. When the votes are tallied, it will either validate what you’ve known all along or reveal something that you knew deep down but couldn’t admit.

When we prepare for something unknown, we cope by convincing ourselves that we’re ready. In that sense, tomorrow is the moment of truth. Afterwards, we’ll have no choice but look at ourselves in the mirror and be honest.

And that’s when the doubt creeps in. Did I do enough? Am I seeing things clearly? Either way, we’ll have to live with the truth that maybe things that start out straight actually curve right before they hit you.

Take time to vote. Take care.

Riccardo

DAY 225

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 03, 2020 AT 4:53PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Today is Election Day 2020. In a year of high anxiety, this might be the peak. Our democracy has been forged through trial and error - so much so that it’s referred to as the Great Experiment (no relation). However, I take solace in the fact that while there is no roadmap for this country, there is a compass.

When you stop and think about how far we have come, you can’t help but think how far we can go. The lowest turnout in election history occurred in 1788 where only 11% of white male property owners (a.k.a. eligible voters) cast a ballot. Nearly 100,000,000 Americans cast their ballots before today – no doubt the most diverse electorate ever assembled to democratically elect its leaders. Image what that number will be a hundred years and what we will look like then.

Good luck. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 226

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 04, 2020 AT 4:45PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I know we all have one eye on the news and one on work so, I won’t distract you further today except to quote Winston Churchill who said,

“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried.…”

That pretty much sums it up for me.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 227

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 05, 2020 AT 5:35PM

Good Evening everyone,

I cannot say enough about the Chicago Fire effort we just saw. Absolutely Herculean!

Enjoy the rest of your evening. As Nareg’s wise (American) football coach often said about the day after: The sun also rises.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 228

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 06, 2020 AT 4:32PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

It’s been a tense week but the weather has done more than its part to help offset the anxiety.

I hope you have a chance to get some well deserve rest and relaxion and enjoy some time outside.

See you Monday. Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 231

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 09, 2020 AT 5:54PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

After CNN called the election for Biden, Van Jones, a CNN contributor, African-American and father of two had a heartfelt reaction the news when he said, “It’s easier to be a parent this morning. Character matters. Telling the truth matters. Being a good person matters”. His relief, shared by many, brought him to tears on-air. The characteristics he cited are not political positions (although he did touch on those) but human traits we each strive for and qualities we gravitate towards in other people.

Sunday morning I read that the anthropologist Margaret Mead called our ability to care for each other, when we are at our weakest, was one of the earliest indications of human civilization and one of the things that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.

The problems we went to bed with on Saturday night were the same ones we woke up with on Sunday morning - a pandemic, racial injustice and a sputtering economy, to name a few. And each of those issues runs right through HOK as well as your home and mine but also through the homes of 70 million voters - who chose the other guy.

I agree with Mr. Jones and Dr. Mead: leading by example is still the best way show what’s important and we cannot help but take care of those in need. It’s in our nature.

Take good care, Riccardo

232

Good Evening everyone, Back to business….

We’ve closed the books on October and, with two months left in the year, the firm and our practice in Chicago continue to perform well.

After the jolt to the economy in the spring, we revised our original fee and profit projections for the firm down between 10-15%. In order to live within our means, we sadly had to decrease the size of our staff and reduce overhead. However, two things worked in our favor - the reduction in travel and marketing expenses. But, while we reap the benefit of lower marketing costs, it also works against us because it means that we are chasing fewer project opportunities. New work is the lifeblood of every business and, some would say, the bane of our existence. But that’s true every year.

More firms are competing for fewer opportunities. That’s also true but, as Insaid before, I’d rather be us than them.

Have a good night. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 233

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2020 AT 4:25PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

When life is hard or the world has me down, I sometimes think about those serving in the military, especially those deployed in harm’s way.

I think of them sometimes but not often.

I could not think of anything else for hours after being amongst current and former soldiers and sailors and their families at the annual Remembrance Day wreath laying ceremony in central Hong Kong. Or at the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery. Or at a perfectly manicured American military cemetery along the roadside in Sicily.

Just a thought. Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 234

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020 AT 6:44PM

Good Evening everyone,

I begin each day with good intentions and writing this note bright and early is one of them. Try as I might, I don’t often make good on my intentions, so here we are.

Truth is, early morning is ideal for this kind of thing. If I had my act together I could distract you, intentionally, for a few minutes by sharing something peculiar or provocative, if only to me. Or, I could give you some useful information about our practice that might ease your mind from worry and make your day go just a little bit better. But at 630pm, it’s a little late for that for all that wishful thinking.

Say what you want about good intentions: they count in my book. Maybe that’s why I feel strongly that, for example, we should be given full credit when we forget someone’s birthday even though it’s on Halloween and you’ve been married to this person for like, a long time, and other people have no problem remembering and you should write these things down or set an alarm or something. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Anyway, I do hope your evening is off to a good start.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 235

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2020 AT 5:53PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

The HOK Board of Directors will meet on Monday for it’s monthly meeting. I’ve always felt that each part of HOK, like our Chicago practice for instance, is a microcosm of the larger organization. Apart from a few regional nuances, our colleagues across the firm grapple with same basic issues we do. And like us, they have the same organizational support, access to talent and resources at their disposal to continuously improve what they do.

I wrote to my fellow board members earlier today but it could have easily been a note to us, here in Chicago:

“In spite of the erratic economy, the expanding pandemic, and political turmoil that we can’t seem to put behind us, the firm continues to do well. Even though we’re all exhausted, we simply can’t let our collective guard down going into the holiday season. The world - our industry - is still too unpredictable. We have ambitious plans for 2021 and whatever we do now, or don’t do, will impact our ability to get next year off to a good start. A big reason why we are doing well is because we acted early and decisively when projects were put on hold and pulled out the stops to win critical new commissions. It’s true that there are more firms competing for fewer opportunities, but as we said before, we’d rather be us than them.”

It’s a reminder that we share the same cultural DNA and that we’re all in this together, indeed.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 238

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2020 AT 3:12PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

In an interview yesterday, Barak Obama acknowledged how hard it has become to engage in civil discourse because we don’t even agree on basic, fundamental truths. He said this was due to the prevalence of, “truth decay” in our society.

Conversing with those with whom I disagree leads to deeper understanding of their point view…and mine…be they design-related or political views. But before any serious discussion, I take for granted that there will be some basic things that we’ll be able to agree on before we diverge down our separate paths. Arriving at what those universal truths are and then being able to hold my mind open to what comes after that is real work. Perhaps I should practice daily and create a healthy habit like brushing one’s teeth.

Seeking truth and propagating it has been with us since the bible (“the truth shall set you free…”) and, not coincidentally, was adopted as the mission of every university since Harvard coined its motto in 1643 –Veritas (Truth). All I really know for sure is that it’s not easy. Maybe we can agree on that and go from there.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 239

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2020 AT 6:03PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I want to thank everyone who participated in the interviews (and prep) for the Kane County Master Plan and the University of Wisconsin CDIS building. The initial reports are that we more than demonstrated that we did our homework, showed off our talents and told a convincing story. That’s all we can ask for. Now, we wait while the juries deliberate.

I know everyone has been working flat out and jumping from one urgent request to another. That’s not easy but unfortunately it’s a sign of the times. Our clients are more nervous and demanding than ever before and they are definitely putting us through our paces. In difficult times like these when other firms are struggling, we continue to deliver. Clients see that. We’re getting a reputation: no one can out hustle us (you).

There’s no diminishing that it’s been tough year but a respite is around the corner. Hang in there a bit longer. We’ll make it through.

Thanks very much. Take care.

Riccardo

DAY 240

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2020 AT 5:51PM

Good Evening everyone, I trust you had a good day. There’s always more to do but tomorrow’s another day. I’ll think about it then. Have a good night. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 241

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2020 AT 6:35PM

HOK CHICAGO:

When I suggested to Riccardo yesterday, we have a guest columnist and to give him a moment of well-earned respite from the daily message, I was not suggesting the guest be myself, nor that it should happen the next day.

That said, as we all have accepted various changes and challenges to our daily responsibilities, I, too, welcome the opportunity.

I see the work we do, the process, and the projects, similar to running a marathon. Living in Boston, it is both a spectacle and an honor to participate in the Boston Marathon.

To run in Boston, one must prequalify by running a sanctioned marathon, under a specific time for an individual’s age, to even begin the application process.

Boston is not for beginners. No one shows up to just run Boston.

Boston requires serious preparation. Boston requires commitment, training, endurance, focus, skill, and a desire to compete.

And, even if you do qualify, there is still no guarantee you will get to run considering the number of qualified applicants and the acceptance rate of twelve percent.

Our profession requires the same. While we are qualified to do the projects we pursue, there is no guarantee we will get to run.

The best way to guarantee a place in Boston, is to not just have the basic time qualifications, but to really destroy the minimum time requirements; the minimum effort. To run in Boston, one has to outwork, out prepare and outperform other ‘qualified’ applicants.

So lets say you get in the race. You get to run Boston. That is just the beginning.

Well known to the Boston Marathon is Heartbreak Hill.

It is a moment in the race, at approximately the 20-mile point, where runners have to ascend a half-mile incline at a point in the race when runners are already seriously fatigued.

It is a moment where the race is often won or lost.

For me, Heartbreak Hill was at the beginning of November, on election day. I see that moment as our national Heartbreak Hill. Already fatigued, do we have it in us to run the final six miles. To win the race? Ibelieve we do, and then some. To finish the year strong, knowing the Citgo sign is just around the corner, then Copley Square and the finish line.

When Covid started in March, we had already started the race, we had already trained and prepared for the race; a race we had no idea we were running. We took off when the starter pistol rang out, and have not looked back.

And while running a marathon is a lot about the individual, it is genuinely the collective that makes it an event. The team.

I have observed moments of integrity and strength in our teams, overcoming, adapting, and delivering. I have been in awe of the efforts our teams have made to continue the pursuit of excellence. Our efforts genuinely humble me, and proud, we continue to thrive as we run, together, as a team.

In our office, I have a unique opportunity to be involved with projects from pre-pursuit to completion. I have the honor and privilege to work with some seriously talented and intelligent individuals, and to watch as we all come together to pursue, produce, and complete projects, working toward a greater goal.

And as a Michigan Alum and in the immortal words of Coach Bo Schembechler: ‘The Team, The Team, The Team.’ Watch the attached for inspiration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjv2iDxiGBI

Back to you Riccardo.

Authors Note: I realize there are mixed sports metaphors, and not everyone loves sports. I would also like to point out that it is irrelevant that I may or may not have ever ‘run’ in the official Boston Marathon. What is important is the metaphor. I also am confident Ricardo is regretting giving me the microphone.

DALLAS FELDER

Good Morning everyone, I hereby pass the reigns to Mr. Dallas Felder to provide today’s missive. He shall: write on a topic of his choosing; broadcast it far and wide by day’s end and tag his message for posterity thus: “Day 241: Our Great Experiment”. I give you Dallas: architect extraordinaire; devout worshiper of The Maize and Blue; and keeper of the flame.

God Speed Dallas! Riccardo

Riccardo Mascia

Fig X.

Gonzo the orchid.

DAY 242

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2020 AT 3:59PM

First, a tip of the hat to Riccardo for keeping this daily email going. As today’s guest contributor I’d like to share something that has brought me joy over the past 8 months.

Pre-pandemic living things did not survive in my house. My routine often changed with whatever came up that day. A client curve ball meant staying at the office late, new pursuit meant an out of town interview or field visit, and (oh how do I miss) impromptu dinner or drinks with friends which meant getting home in time to head straight to bed.

I did have one sad orchid, an impulse Trader Joe’s purchase, that had long ago lost his flowers but the leaves were still green and healthy so I continued to throw water on him every so often. And then one day in late March, this happened:

OK, maybe I can keep something alive.

As the orchid, now lovingly referred to as Gonzo, continued to bloom it spurred other “impulse” plant purchases.

(Miss Piggy, Kermit, and Rizzo pictured above)

I found that I revel in learning more about plants and how to care for them. Each one needs something slightly different and there is a whole host of opinions on the internet about the right way to do it. To re-pot or not to re-pot, that is the question. But nothing, NOTHING beats a new leaf. The thrill of seeing evidence that your plant is healthy and happy never ceases to amaze me. Some sprout off existing stems, some emerge from the middle like chicks in a nest while others all of the sudden have a whole new offshoot that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. And I of course documented each new one:

As we head into winter I am on a steep learning curve to adjust for care during colder, darker

months, while rationalizing that one or two yellow leaves does not necessarily mean that I have, in fact, finally killed Kermit (it’s been touch and go a few times). Gonzo’s flowers all wilted last week. As I went through the plants on the window shelf, cleaning up off-color leaves and removing the wilted blooms I saw something that I had totally failed to notice before…. a whole new stem had emerged from the base, yet again proving there will be more to look forward too soon.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Sarah

DAY 245

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2020 AT 2:46PM

Hi all.

200 days ago I was the guest correspondent for Out Great Experiment #46 and wow, does that ever seem like a millennia ago! I was thinking about everything that’s happened since that fateful day in March when we packed up and went home, for how long nobody could guess (although I don’t think anyone at the time thought it would be this long!), and yet here we are, still getting up and getting it done every day.

So much has changed since then… and so much hasn’t:

! Summer has come… and gone.

! I had a chance to do some camping, we dined and watched movies al fresco, went for some long bike rides, walked the dog a lot, read on the porch, and generally enjoyed a summer greatly slowed-down by the pandemic (for those of us playing by the rules). Gone were all the trips to see friends and relatives, the 4th of July marathon of events, and attempts to cram in as much as possible before the weather turned. I must say that the pace suited me, and I hope that next Summer we don’t just go right back to cramming it all in, and can enjoy again that slower pace, at least for some of it.

! I’m in my 3rd new home.

! I was in the basement until Summer, which was a lot like being in a casino without the gambling, drinking, and shows. I went upstairs for food and sleep, but the rest was mostly just me by myself at the computer. And then I moved to the garage for some fresh air and to see the sun, which was a great. I talked to just about everyone who came through our alley, made friends with garage wildlife, and had direct access to shop projects as needed. And now I’m back in the basement (after electing not to winterize the garage), but this time in another area with a small window. I’ll probably move again at some point, just to keep it interesting. The kids are at that age where they’re starting to come back home less, so maybe someone’s bedroom can become an office at some point!

! Our glorious leader* is, as always, up to no good.

! This guy seems to be piling on new stressors every chance he gets. Eventually he’ll leave The People’s House in a few weeks, and we’ll get some small measure of relief. But he and his minions will still be lurking out there, perhaps somewhat muted, just waiting to sucker punch us when we least expect it. Hopefully by then we’ll have recovered some, and be prepared to take that punch and keep moving forward.

! The Pandemic is still raging.

! But really for the first time in a long time, I have a glimmer of hope that we’ll start to get some parts of our old lives back once summer comes again. Watching the news can be demoralizing, but talk of vaccines, and a new national response, makes me think we can save some people we might have lost

! Many things have become more clear than ever. I’ve marched and protested whenever possible this year, and have been inspired by the shared sense of compassion, resolve, and cohesiveness in my community and around the country. There are things to be hopeful for, even as the world seems to spin out of control. We’ve seen first hand how we’re not all we thought we were, and are some things we wish we weren’t. But maybe seeing many of our problems laid bare may be the first step in finding ways to solve them.

So yeah, a lot has changed, some for the better, some that show our vulnerabilities. And a lot hasn’t changed, which in some ways is a good sign (civilization has not collapsed… yet!)., and in other ways shows us where we need to focus our attention.

Enjoy the holiday, I think we have a lot that we can give thanks for!

Dave

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020 AT 10:37AM

First, I’m going to take just a bit of editorial license. Today, call it this: Day 246: Our Great Experiment Success.

Everyone here has stepped up bigtime through this, and we’ve kept this enterprise on track through unprecedented times. Had we experienced this plague (yes, it’s a plague and we’re not living in medieval times) 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, we would have faced a much different set of obstacles. We would have been forced to social distance work, probably still visit clients more…….it would have been different. I’d be willing to bet even more people would have suffered, and we need to respect the people that do have to put it on the line out there. But because we have technology at this level, and more importantly, because we have practiced using it, we’ve been able to work remotely and still do terrific work.

For me, this has been a bit like how I worked before, but significantly, without the communication from airports, airline seats, uber, hotels, you name it. That has had a calming effect on me, I’m not sure when I’ll be ready to go back to that life. On the other side, I feel like design is maybe a little tougher. What we used to take for granted as informal encounters, where often imagination and collaboration spark great ideas, we’ve had to be a bit more formal, and create those opportunities more through planning them. I think our interactions are a bit more regimented, too, we don’t just run into each other in the break room these days, I miss that aspect of things. But we’re creatively finding ways to do things differently all the time.

Last, I’ve seen a coming together of HOK. I’ve seen teams collaborate even more ‘across borders’, maybe realizing the ideal of what HOK is, and I think what people outside of HOK think of us.

That’s what I think…….and in the season of Thanks, I’m thankful for what we have and will accomplish together.

JEFF GOODALE

DAY 247

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2020 AT 1:36PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

We all want to have choices in our lives. The more the better. The internet and mass customization have given us everything we want, however, can we have too many choices? Consider this: when a supermarket presented shoppers with 24 kinds of jam, they increased their sales 3%. When they reduced that number to six, their sales increased 30% (according to WSJ). Clearly, I’m not the only one who is petrified of the cereal aisle. I often leave without buying anything. Too many choices can create the very stress that its designed to alleviate.

Having choices used to be a sign of prosperity so, can we ever go back? I’ve been daydreaming lately about what it would be like to be an expert purveyor of one simple thing, like a baker selling bread. I know that this is pure fantasy because the drive to sell more, buy fancy equipment, build a bigger shop, and make more money is insatiable. Our march towards wanting to provide more and have more is inherent in us – well, me anyway.

Which brings me to Thanksgiving, a day of abundance. This year we won’t have the choices at our dinner tables that we had in the past, but there’s no question that we’ll have more than most. The way I see it, there will be less to distract us from what really matters. And that alone makes me grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, be they near or far. Take good care, Riccardo

This was a poignant post as I had contracted covid and, on top of being in lockdown, was also in quarantine and had no choice but to spend Thanksgiving alone. Out of this seemingly inhospitable dessert came the rich warmth of a neighbor’s blessing as they brought me Thanksgiving dinner. I’d lost my ability to taste and smell but I savored every morsel of that meal and felt that I was not alone on Thanksgiving.

This demonstrates one of the things that really matters in life, the connection between us; for which we should all be grateful.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 AT 3:41PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Just a short note here to wish you an enjoyable and safe holiday weekend once again.

A few of us (Sebastian, Peter, Roger Soto, Bill Hellmuth and our colleagues in Canada and I) participated in a workshop with our Centre Block (Canadian Parliament building) client. Of course, they are indifferent to our holiday (as we are to theirs) but they appreciated that we treated their recent request with urgency and were available to work with them today. I see also that Ruth and our Healthcare team (Will and Mark) have been putting some time in today, as well.

Thank you—everyone — for your hard work and dedication this holiday weekend and every day.

See you Monday. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 250

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2020 AT 6:36PM

Good Evening everyone,

I know it’s likely that you didn’t travel this holiday weekend but, Welcome Back! just the same. I hope you had time to decompress and enjoy a decent version of your traditional Thanksgiving.

We’re at Day 250. While things on the vaccine front appear to be tantalizingly close, it’s become a cliché to say that we still have a long way to go. We do. But there’s hope. People have done more with less and so will we.

For a while longer, we’ll work from home, sit on another conference call, make coffee, daydream about vacation, eat standing up and get lost in thought as time quickly passes - as it has again today.

Make yours a great week. Take care, Riccardo

DECEMBER

DAY 251

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 01, 2020 AT 7:41PM

Good Evening everyone,

We are creatures of habit because we are wired to seek predictability. Our habits, like our morning routine, reduces the number of variables we have to juggle and therefore decreases our stress and allows our brains the capacity to scan the horizon for threats.

For example, in Navy SEAL training, sailors are first taught to make their beds - not a combat maneuver. Instructors view making one’s rack every morning as a test: if you can’t even make your bed, then how can you lead a complex military operation? Doing the little things right, especially when no one is looking, is a critical part of building a culture of trust and pride.

Our habits, the good ones, give us a sense of accomplishment and control over our daily lives that, too often, unspools right after breakfast.

Have a good night.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 252

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 02, 2020 AT 5:46PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

We received two good pieces of news today. The University of Michigan board has approved the restart of our project. When we stopped, we had completed about 95% of the architecture and maybe 75% of the interiors. We should be back to full strength in January.

Also, our LA office (together with Arup) has been awarded a contract to be the sole master architect-engineer for LAX. This role replaces 11 current on-call firms and will focus on preparing the airport for the 2028 Olympics. In spite of its innocuous name, our “tasks” over the next three years will include the design of major projects (both on and off site) including terminal and concourse work. The design team will be led by none other than our Peter Ruggiero with some of the work being done in Chicago.

Two steps forward! Take care, Riccardo

DAY 253

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 03, 2020 AT 6:50PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Thank you Cam, Heather and Mark for today’s presentation on infection control and medical planning in three HOK-designed hospitals in three countries. I never thought I would see the day that ‘infection control’ would become part of my daily lexicon. But here we are.

The innovation demonstrated in those projects began with SARS in HongnKong seventeen years ago. The lessons from that pandemic predicted the pandemic we’re living through now. And yet, because we never felt the panic that SARS created in other parts of the world, we never adopted some hard lessons learned here at home. We have good excuses, like cost or culture, but its really down to our isolation from the rest of the world both physically and mentally. We never thought SARS could reach us.

We never thought war and terrorism would reach us either until Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Those singular events made the abstract tangible to each of us. As a result, we would never design or build anything the same again. Our lives, and the very way we work and play, would never the be the same either. COVID-19 will leave its indelible mark on us and our work, too.

Seems obvious now but hindsight is always 20-20.

Have a good evening. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 254

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 04, 2020 AT 6:06PM

Good Evening everyone,

Its been another mad scramble to the end of the day. The end of another week.

I know everyone has been franticly busy perhaps working over the weekend, working late, working on multiple projects, working on marketing, working on a committee or just putting out fires. On top of that there’s the kids, the in-laws, the partner, the dog – all in need of attention. And, fix that leak, buy that table, take out the garbage, put up the tree, make dinner, put away the dishes, fold the laundry, find masks and schedule a COVID test.

As a wise women frequently said to me and my sisters, “misery loves company.” English to English: It’s a lot and it tough but it’s easier to bear together.

Have a good weekend. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 257

MONDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2020 AT 7:18PM

Good Morning everyone,

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, FDR spoke to the nation and declared, “December 7th, 1941 a date which will live in infamy…”. Today’s date is easily recalled by multiple generations of Americans. A bookend to that date was another, August 6th, 1945 - the day the atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima. However, few years ago, only 30% of residents of Japan could correctly name the month, day and year of one of the most significant dates in Japan’s 2,000 history.

Outside of the US especially in Hispano-America, streets and squares are named for important dates like 20 de Noviembre in Mexico City (the start of the Mexican revolution) or Plaza 2 de Mayo in Madrid (the beginning of the war for Spanish independence). These dates are woven into daily life and thus aid in our memory albeit sometimes oddly. “Where can I meet you? On the corner of November 20th and May 2nd.”

Soon, dates like today’s will become numbers in history books and devoid of the emotion that comes from first-hand experience that made them real to us, viscerally. I think about the extraordinary time we are living in and can’t help but wonder if this time will be immortal or infamous or both. Or neither.

Take good care, Riccardo

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 08, 2020 AT 4:33 PM

Good Afternoon Everyone!

When Riccardo asked if I’d address the group today, I was happy to accept his invitation – not that I had anything profound in mind that I felt had been missed by him or other prior contributors. So what you’ll get here is my perspective on our collective situation while staying out of politics; hopefully you won’t curse Riccardo for handing me the mic.

If you read no further, just know that I consider myself extremely grateful – and hopeful.

Although I’m in good health, I’m old enough to be considered part of a vulnerable demographic. That keeps me anxious and fuels my irritation with those who still refuse to take the pandemic seriously.

Relatively speaking, Cindy and I have it easy. We’re empty nesters, and the biggest downside for us is not being able to travel to see our kids and grandson. We spend plenty of Facetime, bemoan the fact our grandson is growing up without us, and worry about the health all 4 kids plus significant others plus that grandson…standard parenting stuff in a new age, resilient in part because of decisions we’ve made in the past.

And, at least as of this writing, I still have a job.

It saddens me incredibly to see the skyrocketing unemployment figures and the number of folks lining up for assistance for the first time in their lives.

Beyond having a job, though, I’m grateful to have a position at HOK.

I’ve seen a lot of things in my 42-year career – I told you I was old – but I will say without hesitation that our firm is better managed and run than any I’ve seen. Our leadership is just like us – talented, passionate, diverse, entrepreneurial, caring and resilient. This is the HOK culture,

and we’re succeeding today due in large part to the decisions taken by leadership in the past. HOK’s investment in technology made our move out of the office possible, and nearly seamless. HOK’s care for people is manifest in our incredible HR group, staying in confidential touch with each of us to make this time as bearable as it can possibly be. HOK’s foundational business technology made our move out of the office possible, and nearly seamless. HOK’s care for people is manifest in our incredible HR group, staying in confidential touch with each of us to make this time as bearable as it can possibly be. HOK’s foundational business acumen placed us in a position of strength against the pandemic headwinds.

Most of all though, I’m grateful to have you – talented, passionate, diverse, entrepreneurial, caring and resilient you – as partners in this experiment. I’m amazed at your business-as-usual approach to getting truly outstanding work done remotely in the face of new, constantly changing and daunting personal and family obligations.

What’s more incredible to me though, is the outpouring of thoughtful support in response to our national awakening to systemic inequality. I could not be more proud of HOK Chicago’s willingness to care, and look forward to being a part of the implementation of the programs you have conceptualized.

You – along with some things I said I wouldn’t write about, plus the vaccine – give me hope. That’s it. That’s where my head’s at.

Take care and stay safe – let’s not get tripped up in sight of the finish line – mask up!

PAUL MAUTE

DAY 259

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2020 AT 4:15PM

Good afternoon Folks:

Immediately agreeing to contribute today my mind instantly went into reaction mode: WHY DID I AGREE TO DO THIS?

Afterall in the previous 258 days there has been a lot said, even on the days when there was nothing but its been a tough day, I am won out, have good evening has a wonderful honesty that maintains the high standard that has been set.

Until yesterday I was going to talk about how I spent my weekend offering career counselling to the oldest of our three children. Our daughter Isabella armed with her undergraduate in English Lit and Art history headed back to NY five years ago and landed in the world of High End/Couture Fashion. With her keen interest in Design she fell into a role of producing and choreographing photo shoots, layouts and publications. Maybe it was the influence of growing up in home with two architect parents, or maybe it was her daily commute down the Highline but this past spring-summer she announced her intention to apply to graduate school for a MArch degree. There was no point in talking her out of it. And why should I, we both enjoy what we do. We are passionate about our profession; it has and continues to be rewarding and as she pointed out what we do has an impact. With that discussion quickly settled we both dove into application and portfolio coaching.

It was a great exercise in the editing and refinement of ideas, of images, strategy and a point of view that garners attention and creates recognition (sounds like responding to an RFQ/RFP).

It was all very enjoyable, the volume never reached any perceived high levels, and everyone concluded each day happy, for the most part with the progress.

As I stated a paragraph ago, I thought I would write about that process, reflecting on why design and architecture, how it is a profession and discipline in change, adopting and responding to new challenges in the world. It was so wonderful to be seeing this through the eyes and mind of someone with so much enthusiasm; and then I received a NYTimes alert on my phone on Monday night that Gen. Chuck Yeager USAF had passed away at age 97. Chuck Yeager, the man who broke the sound barrier, who was epitomized in Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff and had a distinguished career in the military. Yeager was an interesting character, a ‘country boy” from the Appalachian Hills of West Virginia, he was a decorated fighter pilot “Ace” in WWII who in 1947 in an highly experimental plane above the Mojave Desert broke the “demon in the sky” the sound barrier. This was the first of many records that Yeager would break in this career as a test pilot.

In 1979 Ton Wolfe wrote The Right Stuff, his great work of non-fiction that told the story of the early days of the 7 Mercury Astronauts and the beginning of the space program.

Yeager was not one of the chosen seven because he did not meet the “profile”. A few years later the movie version of the Right Stuff was produced and Yeager, played by Sam Shepard (lucky guy) was prominently featured as the individual who truly had the Right Stuff. ReadingYeager’s obituary in today’s paper made me think about this idea of the right stuff as it applies to what we do, not necessarily who has or who doesn’t have it, but how to define it and what characteristics we admire. In the context of test pilots Tom Wolfe described it as going beyond bravery and courage, beyond smart and intuitive flying, but almost having a connection with a flying machine that is spiritual, the ability to function at the absolute limit, in a razor’s edge, maybe even dare to become comfortable exploring beyond the razor’s edge and then gathering it all up, completing the task and doing it all again another day.

A real admirable quality of Yeager’s persona was his incredible modesty and nobility. He did not seek the spotlight nor really dwell in when it captured him. About breaking the sound barrier he said in years later, our biggest barrier was our lack of knowledge and fear of what we didn’t know.

Like all of us I am sure he had faults, but we should all take a moment and read about him if you don’t already know him.

How this applies to us and how we practice, I think there is a lot to learn from this type of individual. Fearless (yes, but he admitted that he always feared for his life), willing take the calculated risk, achieving greatness yet living a noble professional existence. And nobility in our world on instant gratification and self-promoting social media is the greatest take away.

Have a good evening, Peter

DAY 260

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2020 AT 10:44AM

Good Morning everyone,

Thanks to Peter and Paul (and others) for stepping in for me. I have to say that I really enjoy reading everyone’s point of view - in no small part because it’s a lot easier read something interesting than write something interesting. Now, back to business:

The ExCom met this week to firm-up our priorities and confirm the Business Plan for 2021 and do annual reviews for the leadership of the firm. Because many people ask about what it takes to be a leader, I thought I would share the framework we use when we do reviews. It’s not a checklist but a broad set of principles that can apply to people who have vastly different responsibilities, talents, and experience - not to mention successes and (occasionally) calamities over the past year.

Here are some of the things we talk about when we talk about them (you):

! Have they contributed positively to our firm, our culture and our bottom line?

! Are they advancing our design agenda and winning design awards?

! Are they attracting clients, opportunities and projects to HOK?

! Do they collaborate well with others?

! Do they make money for the firm?

! Do they put the good of the firm before themselves or before their office?

! Are they raising HOK’s profile as well as their own?

! Do they run towards trouble?

! Are they a good mentor and do they attract new talent to HOK?

! Are they growing their part of the business?

! Do they enable people around them?

! Are they a thought leader who is sought out for their point of view?

! Do they actively participate in their committees to improve the firm?

! Are they a good partner?

There’s no formula to design or to leadership. We recognize that by looking holistically at the person just as would at design.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 261

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2020 AT 12:50PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

The scramble to tidy things up for the end of year is in full swing. Our clients want what they want and they want it now. Prospective clients want their proposals submitted just before or just after the holidays. Everyone wants the same thing - to get off on the right foot come January.

It’s likely that we’ll have to continue to grind to get it all done, of course. Woody Allen said that 90% of life is showing up. That might be true but it’s the other 10% that makes the difference. Clients, like all of us, want to work with people who are reliable, who think beyond the questions they are asked, and who do more than what is asked without being asked. Our Cedars Sinai client in LA would often say to me, “We expect perfection, but we’ll accept more”. Everyone wants to be pleasantly surprised not the opposite.

You have demonstrated your hard word and commitment to the cause all year. One of our most important clients said to me yesterday, “I can always count on HOK to deliver….and push us. Good architects always do”. Our reputation is built on how well we finish. So, let’s do great work.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 264

MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2020 AT 4:38PM

Good afternoon everyone,

I’m subbing in for Riccardo today and what an exciting day it is! The sun is shining (or at least it was when I started this email), the electoral college is voting and shipments of the vaccine are being sent all over the USA and the world. I know the process to roll out the vaccine will take time but it’s bringing me hope that our current way of social distancing living might soon be in our rear-view mirrors.

We’ve got two and a half weeks left until 2021 (yikes!) and wrapping up the end of the year is looking a bit different than normal. I’m missing holiday parties, gatherings with friends and freezing my butt of at the Christkindl Market. That being said, I’m appreciating the slower pace and time to do things I normally wouldn’t – like baking cookies and mailing them to my parents in Colorado. Pre COVID, I barely used my kitchen – I wasn’t home much and didn’t have the time or skills. Now I have a subscription to Bon Appetit magazine and “whip up” home made pizza dough in my new food processor – even as I write this I’m thinking…. who am I?? It’s a small example but reminds me we’re all capable of change and growth when given the space to do so. Learning to cook has been the silver lining in my COVID experience, my hope is that you all have one (or hopefully more!) positive things you can take away from this situation and can share with the world when we’re all able to be safely together again. Until then I’ll work on perfecting my cookie recipes so I can share when we get back to the office.

With all of us accustomed to seeing each other over Teams in our WFH attire, this scene from Elf sums up how I imagine the first day back in the office post COVID.

Looking forward to that day but until, then – take care and be safe!

Heather Fenniman

DAY 265

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2020 AT 6:26PM

Good Evening everyone,

Many thanks to Heather who stepped in for me yesterday. Heather’s silver lining in all this mess is having time to cook. Her larger point is that we’re all capable of adapting and growing, “when given the space to do so”. I would tweak that slightly and say, when given the opportunity to do so.

Last week I talked about the framework we use to review the leadership of the firm. What I didn’t talk about was how those people got to be leaders in the first place. As you would expect, everyone is different and there’s certainly no formula. However, one thing that many have in common is being thrown into the deep end when – and this is the important part – they didn’t think they were ready.

You can’t build a business or a career on the sink or swim method but, when you’ve got no choice but to figure stuff out without much of a safety net, a surprisingly number of us adapt and grow and, cue the trumpets, succeed. Each of us can recall a turning point in our careers when we got thrown in, fully clothed, with no notice and miles from shore. We might not have liked it, in fact we might have hated it. But, growth is an undeniable byproduct of change.

We see it as part of our responsibility to put opportunities in front of you just as others did for us. So that the next time we’re at the water’s edge, you’ll jump in…before you’re pushed.

Take care, Riccardo

Good Evening everyone,

Just a short note at the end of a long day to acknowledge two historic events that happened yesterday—the first doses of the vaccine were administered and the Electoral College convened and confirmed the next president of the United States. These are important milestones that shape our lives yet they are quickly forgotten as we move on to the next new cycle.

Developing a vaccine in record time did not happen overnight. That colossal effort drew upon on decades of research, investment, innovation and luck along the way. All that made it possible to find a novel Covid-19 vaccine quickly but it did not guarantee its discovery.

Similarly, the same could be said of the Electoral College — archaic institution if there ever was one. Every four years since 1789 Electors expressed the will of the people but that was no guarantee this time. Until it was.

In both cases, a lot of people, invisible to us, maybe just like us, were driven by a sense of duty to just do good. I take comfort in that.

Have a good night. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 267

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2020 AT 7:37PM

Good Evening everyone,

It was good to see everyone this afternoon and it made me wistful for the old days when we would graze our way through the office kitchen grabbing handfuls of popcorn, filling napkins of cheese and crackers, and stealing glasses of wine in plastic cups before heading home. How far we’ve come. How far we have yet to go.

While working like this less than ideal, we really can’t complain. Paul’s subtle plea for us to contribute to the Children First Fund reminded me that far too many in our own city have no kitchen to raid, no snacks to indulge, no free gifts to share.

Every day we work to make the world a better place. Let’s make it a little brighter for those in need, too.

Have a good night. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 268

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2020 AT 8:54PM

Good Evening everyone,

When I was still in grammar school we would visit my sister in college in DeKalb – the furthest I’d ever been from home. The trip there, all of about an hour and a half, was excruciating. Time passed glacially. There was nothing to do or listen to. My mother sipped cigarettes while we looked out the car window at the farmscape. We were so far from home.

When it was my turn to go to college in Ames, I would return home by driving through DeKalb which by then felt like being practically home, it was so close. A few years after that, on my way to grad school in California, I didn’t feel like I’d even left home until I barreled past the same exit to Ames, seven hours away. And while LA was only just a small dot on the edge of my solar system, it too became another signpost to home. When flying in from Hong Kong years later, landing in LA meant that I was just a hop, skip and a jump to Chicago even though home was still half a continent away.

All this is perception and it swirls around in my, “skull size universe” (as David Foster Wallace called it). What was once far away is now close. What was once close is now far away. The good news is: we’re all home for now.

And that’s real. Enjoy your break. Stay safe. Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 271

MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2020 AT 12:27PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Today is the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the shortest day of the year. Below the equator, they’ve already hiked the canyon up towards maximum daylight. For us, we’ve been gradually descending into the darkness since June (some would say since March) but tomorrow we will touch bottom, turn around and head back up towards the light.

We’ll pass our southern neighbors in a few months as we move in opposite directions. We’ve both been carrying the pandemic on this year’s journey so I prefer the direction we’re headed, mentally at least.

Regardless, we can all look forward to tomorrow when the sun will rise.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 272

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2020 AT 11:29AM

Good Morning everyone, I’m not writing the epilogue to 2020 just yet but it is a good time for a public service announcement:

This year has asked a lot of you and has added a pile of new challenges to the old ones: economic insecurity, racial injustice and political instability simmer near the surface. You’re working remotely, trying to keep the family together (or apart) and doing your best impression of a fill-in-the-blank school teacher. And, who could forget the worldwide pandemic? Add the fact that you’ve likely had to upend your normal holiday routine, can’t travel and your boss insists on sending annoying emails every day - now it’s a party!

Seriously, all this can really take a toll on the body and mind. HOK has a confidential, safe and easy to use resource available for you and your family: the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Our EAP is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Your discussions are private and you can talk to counselors for free. Here’s how:

Call Toll free: (800) 311-4327 or TDD: (800) 697-0353

Website: Guidance Resources Web ID: GEN311

If you don’t need it, great just save this email. Think of it like insurance: you’ll probably never need it but it’s there if you do.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 273

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2020 AT 11:00AM

Good Morning everyone,

Last year at this time when I hit my knees in our old parish church in Madrid, I prayed for the things I always pray for: a healthy and happy extended family, strength to complete college (that was for my wife), a successful year at HOK and capital-p peace on Earth. By and large, my prayers were answered but with a twist as god, like Santa, likes to keep you guessing...and believing.

The worldwide pandemic came to Spain just as we were settling-in back at home. We felt like we had just pulled our finger tips out of a fast closing door. The horror scenes that played out in the ensuing months from Europe made us feel relieved and a little guilty. We thought we would once again be witnesses to history from a safe distance away. That is, until all hell broke loose right here.

On this Christmas Day I’ll add a few things to my list of payers but mainly I’ll give thanks. It’s not been easy or pretty. We’ve seen and heard some ugly things this year that we would all just as soon not live through again. But we made it this far and that alone should give us the confidence and the strength to make our way through next year, come what may.

All the best to you and your families.

Take good care, Riccardo

JANUARY

DAY 285

MONDAY, JANUARY 04, 2021 AT 7:00AM

Good Morning everyone,

Let me be the first to welcome you to the 2021 installment of HOK Chicago.

I trust you found time over the last few weeks to catch your breath, rest and reflect a bit on the extraordinary year that was. It continues to amaze me what we accomplished together in 2020. A year ago we never though it would have been possible to cast off our intrenched ways of working one day and start completely anew the very next and never miss a beat. But we did.

It makes me think: twelve months from now, will we look back and again marvel at the extraordinary things we did but we never thought possible? If past is prologue, then I have great confidence that we will say that we lived in historic times, worked hard and made a difference in the communities where we live…and work.

Looking forward to a wonderful year. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 286

TUESDAY, JANUARY 05, 2021 AT 6:27PM

Good Evening everyone,

I had a chance to read a lot over the break, something that I was having difficulty doing last year in part because I was consumed by the news or I was consuming too much news, either one but probably both. By the 23rd, I couldn’t find the energy to turn on the TV and with the house still, I read three good Christmas presents instead: Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Bump; The Splendid and the Vile by Larson; and Caste by Wilkerson.

I realized that because I wasn’t traveling, I didn’t have the focus that I normally had and that only an airplane seat and the hum of a jet engine can provide. I rarely watch TV on the plane, even on long haul flights, because it tends to get me a little too wound-up with no place to go. I need real concentration and a low heart beat to read and the plane drowns out most of the noise that I find annoying while providing zero visual distractions.

But now that I’m settling back into a routine, I’m curious to know about the elections in Georgia, presidential antics and of course our old enemy, the pandemic. The TV beckons, and I’m weak so, I’ll give in more than I should if only to relax, odd as that seems, even to me.

Take care, Riccardo

Note*

Epifania is celebrated also in Riccardo’s homecountry, Italy. He should get some coal for forgetting this.

DAY 287

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 06, 2021 AT 5:37PM

Good Evening everyone,

Not to get all religious but it strikes me as ironic that today is Epiphany, better known as the 12th Day of Christmas and the day that the Three Wise Men visited Jesus bearing gifts.

Epiphany is celebrated in Spain, Latin America and my house with children waking up to find presents placed near their shoes which were left out the night before.

One definition of epiphany is, “a revealing scene or moment” which I would suggest to you is fitting given the words and pictures emanating from Washington today.

Keep the faith. Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 288

THURSDAY, JANUARY 07, 2021 AT 8:42PM

Good Evening everyone,

When every day seems extraordinary (literally, beyond ordinary) and then this, when will we be able to step back, take it all in and, in a way, mourn?

As I mentioned early, I watched the turning of the congressional gears well into the wee hours of the morning and it struck me on how eerily normal everything seemed. I know that there was broken glass, tipped over furniture and shell casings just on the other side of the chamber door but my first instinct – like theirs - was get back to work and quickly. Show the world we’re undaunted, undeterred and undefeated.

When our home was broken into in Mexico City, we traced muddy footsteps around the house to deduce what had been surgically stolen. Where corruption is deep rooted and ubiquitous, we couldn’t call the police or the insurance company because they were prime suspects.

So, we picked up, made coffee, had breakfast at the dining room table and went to work, just like every other day. But unlike so many mornings just like it, that’s one I won’t ever forget.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 289

FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2021 AT 6:42PM

Good Evening everyone,

In the old days, back in December, we were all looking forward to seeing 2020 disappear in the rearview mirror. The general consensus was that the worst would soon be behind us and we could look forward to sunnier days ahead.

Thing is, the imaginary line between December 31st and January 1st lives only in our heads. Corona doesn’t know or even care what year it is any more than it knows/cares about the difference between you and me. Even so, just when we were ready to mentally turn the page on 2020, Week One brought us a whole new brand of calamity.

So much for consensus.

Last year, words we knew existed but rarely used became part of our daily lexicon. Our normal words just wouldn’t do anymore. So, we dusted off the old ones like pandemic, antibodies and inoculation. This past week we added a few more to the list like insurrection, rebellion and sedition.

That said, I look forward to sunny days ahead because I know now what they knew then - that sunlight is still the best disinfectant.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 292

MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2021 AT 2:12PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

As I mentioned the other day, we are in the midst of closing the books on 2020 and the preliminary results for the firm look good – far better than we predicted 292 days ago. Our Chicago practice is tracking the performance of the firm as a whole. I have attached a chart showing our fee and profit performance over the last few years. Here’s a few observations that I found interesting:

! Our fees were down 13% in 2020 compared with last year.

! Our fees were down 17% compared with our plan (submitted a year ago).

! We revised our business plan in June (due to the pandemic) and we finished slightly better (1%) than that revision (i.e. our predictions for the second half of the year were correct).

! For 2021, we are projecting a modest reduction in fees (7%).

! We have been profitable every year, regardless of fees. Our goal has always been to do outstanding work and generate the fees and profit necessary to compensate ourselves well while ensuring the long term health of the firm. It’s easier said than done but we’ve proven we can do it under even the most trying circumstances.

Have a good week. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 293

TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2021 AT 5:43PM

Good Evening everyone,

A few months ago, I jotted down a few notes as Michele Obama addressed the Democratic Convention. When I listen to political speeches, I can get lost in a thicket of catch phrases and double-speak but on this night, Mrs. Obama spoke with exceptional clarity. So, I grabbed a pen and wrote down three things that, looking back on them today, could be titled categorized as our past, present and future:

The story of America, she said, was about all those who came before us and struggled to make things better for the next generation. “There’s a lot beauty in that story. There’s a lot of pain, too”.

And, “Being President doesn’t make you. It reveals who you are”.

Finally, “If you think it won’t get any worse, you’re wrong. It can and it will”.

Now that I think about it, they could also be categorized as wonderfully moving, clear-eyed and chilling.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 294

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2021 AT 7:23PM

Good Evening everyone,

It’s been a long and busy day.

I always hoped to have a job where my days were filled with work so interesting and my involvement so consuming that the days would fly by. I’m lucky because that’s often how my days go and today was no exception.

I hope yours was a good one, as well.

See you tomorrow. Take care, Riccardo

Maute Random Notes and Quotes on Career Planning:

‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.’

– Mike Tyson

‘Brutal reality can change even the best of prepared plans…’

‘No plan survives contact with the enemy.’

Vision without Plan is Just a Dream

Letting it Happen vs Making it Happen

A Career Plan just covers one aspect of you; maybe it should be a Life Plan.

Does your Career Plan conflict with your Life Plan (and the other people in it)?

Welcome to the World.

Who do you want to be proud of you?

What do you want to be remembered for?

‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’

– Every Adult You Ever Met

What happens if I can’t make something happen?

Plans are like goals, they just set you up for disappointment.’

– Curmudgeon Philosopher Paul Maute

It’s OK (right, and valuable) to consider your life – and the other people in it.

DAY 295

THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2021 AT 7:32PM

Good Evening everyone,

If I remembered to have a New Year’s resolution and then be disciplined enough to follow through, I probably would have resolved to laying-off the hard stuff. Over the past few hundred days, I’ve taken to sampling different types of scotch and bourbon, much in the same way some people (me) taste and savor wine.

I hadn’t been a big drinker since my G&Ts became straight Gs way back when. But in the Time of Corona, I have again learned how to appreciate a simple whiskey. One of the unexpected pleasures found while sequestered at home.

Cheers. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 296

FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2021 AT 6:24PM

Good Evening everyone, Today Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 92. He became a reluctant leader at 26. Held a doctorate by 27. Won the Noble Peace Prize at 35. Was assassinated at 39. 58 years ago, he had a dream. Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 299

MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2021 AT 3:27PM

Good afternoon gang, and thank you Riccardo for asking me to share some thoughts. I remember after two weeks of working from home, I could not possibly imagine going through two more weeks of continuing that trend. Now after ten months of working remotely, while it still has its many difficulties, it has become second nature for many of us. I am sure spending significantly more time at home has given us much more time to think about the things that used to be so common that we realize we now took for granted. Two pastimes stand out to me in this regard. The first is Chicago’s live music scene. While working from home was an adjustment that took a few weeks, the absence of live shows for nearly a year has been…quite rough. There are so many incredible music venues in the city, and whether it is a large venue to see a big-name band that you have known for years, or a hole in the wall to stumble upon a band or artist you have never heard of, seeing live music has become the most meaningful thing for me to do with any free time. To be honest, I would even happily be dragged to a country show right now (I won’t name any names though).

The second pastime centers on the social gatherings that occur when things are normal, whether impromptu or planned. Many of these are shared with fellow HOKers - happy hours, losing softball games, losing bowling matches, general office gatherings – all things I greatly enjoy because I have no idea what to do with myself if I am not being social. This extended absence has made me realize even more what an incredible group of people we have, and I am truly grateful for all of you. Things are finally beginning to look up again and it is becoming more realistic to picture all of these activities returning.

Unrelated to these activities, but of critical importance: Friday would have been Martin Luther King Jr.’s 92nd birthday, and while I am certainly no expert on the matter, his messages and actions highlight how fortunate and privileged of a position it is to simply be distressed about missing the pastimes discussed above. There are far more important issues that require everybody to contribute in order to

improve. Recent events have magnified how much work we still have to do as a community to realize all that he fought for – but I am confident that our generations and future generations will address and begin to solve these issues at an exponentially faster rate. Though it has moved too slowly, I do feel we are making progress.

See you all soon.

Kyle

DAY 300

TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021 AT 8:43AM

Good Morning everyone,

Today we have arrived at two milestones of sorts - 300 days since we began Our Great Experiment and the last full day of the Trump presidency - which is probably why I’ve been thinking about a chance encounter Sofia and I had with Richard Nixon in Central Park.

In the years after he left the White House in disgrace, it has been said that Nixon felt remorse, expressed regret and took responsibility for Watergate. The fact that he resigned before he was impeached seems almost noble today. I was certainly no fan - I just didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to come face to face with history.

To my surprise, the most reviled president in history was welcoming, affable and in no hurry. The old campaigner was in rare form. He asked us how we met, told us about his honeymoon in Mexico and his recent trip to Russia while his son-in-law, David Eisenhower, fumbled to take our picture with my camera. A few months later he was dead.

Meeting Nixon humanized the man isolated in the twilight of his life. But I could never forgive the ex-President who drove the country to the brink chasing his own demons. In the end, the pictures I developed were out of focus as if to remind me that a clear image of a such an enigmatic person can never really be captured.

Just a thought on this somber day.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 301

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2021 AT 7:06PM

Good Evening everyone,

I couldn’t help but notice that the sun came out today here and in Washington.

I haven’t seen much of the day’s festivities yet. I participated in a workshop with the Canadian government that started at the conclusion of the swearing-in ceremonies. Everyone, including me, had clearly waited until the last possible moment to join the call as we were all glued to the news so we talked bout what we had just witnessed.

We were all slightly awe-stuck and marveled at how the US picked itself up, dusted itself off and carried on like nothing ever happened. There were two people on the call from DC: Bill Hellmuth and Stephan Ayes, the former Architect of the Capitol - both were beaming with pride for their beloved city.

Everyone, American and non-American alike, were all a little giddy with excitement thinking about what’s to come.

Have a good evening. Take good care, Riccardo

Biden’s phrases about his grief:

“Part of going through it publicly is—it puts you in a position where you either are going to walk away from trying to give hope and comfort to somebody or you engage it and it’s hard.”

“But at least you get satisfaction, in my case at least, from knowing that that’s what my deceased wife would have wanted me to do; that’s what my son would want me to do.”

“What I find is that I think the worst thing I can do is when someone confides in me, and I can feel the pain, to just sort of say, ‘Well, it’s going to be okay,’ and move on.”

“I think that when people know, like I tell people when you go through a serious, serious loss, there will come a time when you won’t believe it”

“But when the memory flashes across your mind that the person you adored is gone — you smell that particular flower, you pass a particular field, you get into a car and you see the profile of a woman or a man who looked like your son, daughter, husband, wife — when that thought comes, you first get a smile before a tear to your eye.”

“It takes a long time”.

“When it happens, you know you’re going to make it.”

“The pain had seemed unbearable in the beginning, and it took me a long time to heal, but I did survive the punishing ordeal. I made it through, with a lot support, and reconstructed my life and my family. When I talk to people in mourning, they know I speak from experience. They know I have a sense of the depth of their pain.”

– From his 2017 book, “Promise Me, Dad”

Other people’s comments:

“Joe Biden has almost a superpower in his ability to comfort and listen and connect with people who have just suffered the greatest loss of their lives”.

– Delaware Senator Chris Coons

“I see a guy who knows what loss is, who knows grief. And I think that kind of grief humbles you.....There’s a humility to the randomness of tragedy that brings about a caring that can’t be faked, and it can’t be contrived....I actually believe something in [Biden’s] life experience can benefit this country at a moment it desperately needs it.”

–

Jon Stewart

DAY 302

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021 AT 7:22PM

Good Evening everyone,

Much has been said about the new President’s genuine ability to his empathize with people. The twin tragedies that were visited upon Joe Biden, the husband and father, could easily have crushed him.

The fact that he overcame his grief should be enough for us to respect the man but for him to muster the strength to carry-on at all, let alone in public service, is worthily of our admiration.

What good came from Joe Biden having overcome such profound personal tragedy? Empathy - something in short supply these days. To paraphrase the writer Andre Dubus III: Joe Biden’s life, like writing, “is a sustained act of empathy”.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 303

FRIDAY,

JANUARY 22, 2021 AT 6:58PM

Good Evening everyone,

We’re at the end of a historic week – a fact that I’m going to toast with a drink, or two. I recommend you do the same.

This year is starting to pick up steam.

See you Monday. Take care, Riccardo

Office Market Top Pursuit

Description

CHI 655 W. Madison Avenue Office Tower 68-story office building in downtown Chicago. Developer led.

HK CSCEC Jinan City Office Towers Multi-building office development. Competition.

HOU JBU Pueblo County Treatment/ Detention Center 670 bed jail. HOK developed the Master Plan, provided budget, and presented to public and Commissioners. Expect RFQ out late January 2021

KC SRE Maryland Stadium Authority Major redevelopment of Pimlico and Laurel Park Horse Racing Facilities

LA San Diego Airport Admin Bldg. New Administration building for San Diego Airport Authority

LON NY HCBU St. Mary’s Hospital Redevelopment

Redevelopment of a large NHS hospital in the middle of London - competition held awaiting results and award of project All disciplines medical programming and planning, architecture, interiors, planning and landscape

NY A+T JFK - Terminal 1 Architecture and Structural Engineering for new $2.5B Terminal 1 at JFK Airport. Design Competition.

NY WP HSBC North America/Latin America workplace locations

SF S+T Intuitive Surgical Expansion and consolidation of ISI existing campus facilities to include new campus facilities at the designated project site in Sunnyvale

SF S+T/ WP Roche Lab Workplace and definition and implementation of the Roche Diagnostics Laboratory

SRE SRE Confidential Collegiate Stadium Renovation Major Collegiate Stadium Renovation

STL Saint Francis South 300,000sf bed tower modernization and new entrance in Tulsa

STL NY HCBU University of Nebraska Medicine 800 bed replacement Medical Center combined with a new Government Infectious Disease Hospital (current Construction Est $2.7B)

TOR WDC HCBU Centre for Addition and Mental Health (CAMH)

Project Delivery Compliance for full replacement of Forensic Mental Health Facility with a new 234 beds hospital at a 27 acre fully developed and tense downtown Toronto site

WDC HCBU Universal Health Care St. Elizabeth’s East 250,000 sf New Health Hospital, full service, community hospital with a trauma center

DAY 306

MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2021 AT 7:27PM

Good Evening everyone,

Before our Board Meeting last week, I polled our offices for their most significant project pursuit in the next 90 days. I received the list below and we spent a good portion of our meeting discussing each one.

Notably, the projects represent a good cross-section of our market expertise and many are being pursued by multiple offices in collaboration. The reason is simple: the competition has always been stiff for major design commissions like these so, you have to bring the house to win.

The list is a snapshot but it’s a reminder that only a firm like ours can be in the hunt for so many important projects at the same time. While half a list like this would be the envy of 99% of all design firms on the planet, we have the privilege being part of a firm where, not only is this commonplace, but expected. Thanks making all this possible.

Make it a great week. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 307

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2021 AT 9:09PM

Good Evening everyone,

Somewhere along the way, I’m not sure when, I decided to write every day with the aim of keeping us a little more connected. True, I never thought it would last this long but here we are.

When will I give it up? The one-year mark is a possibility. So is the day I received the inoculation against the thing that started all this in the first place. Or maybe the day we’re back in the office together?

I don’t know but it’s part of my day now and hopefully a small part of yours.

Have a good night. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 308

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2021 AT 6:44PM

Good Evening everyone,

The strange thing about living in (partial) lock-down is how quiet the city has become. Drop eight inches of fresh snow over everything and it really is perversely wonderful. It’s not silent, the L still rumbles in the distance and there’s din of wake turbulence coming from the rooftops, but the lack of sound makes the city feel a little more intimate, quaint, and village-like.

So does seeing the lights on in all the windows. Most of the houses and apartments were pitch black B.C. (before Covid) as if the residents were still practicing light discipline from The War. Of course people are home all the time now and, after almost a year of this, their primal need to see out the front window has overtaken their the wish for privacy and modesty. Who really cares if a passerby can watch CNN through your living room from the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street?

Such is the need to see other people, real and in-motion, even if they’re walking by in silence. Or so it seems on my street tonight.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 309

THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2020 AT 8:01PM

Good Evening everyone,

I was trolling back amongst the pile of things that I keep near and which I have collected, in one form or another since I was a kid, and which I find interesting like newspapers clippings, magazines articles, PDF files and digital images. I found this quote from last year that resonated with me today:

“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” So said the poet Sylvia Plath about writing but it very much applies to what we do.

Just a thought tonight.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 310

FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2021 AT 6:04PM

Good Evening everyone, Have a good weekend. See you Monday. Take care, Riccardo

FEBRUARY

DAY 313

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 AT 7:11PM

Good Morning everyone,

One of the benefits of working from home is that you can enjoy the snow by looking at it, not being in it - no inching your way through traffic or trudging to the L wishing you were inside. This weekend the City of Chicago was ambivalent about plowing, so our neighborhood became a scene from one of those Citizen Kane snow globes, complete with curiously round snowflakes that swirled in from all angels when the wind kicked up.

The snow accumulated all day and by midnight I couldn’t resist the temptation to get out and be in it. I joined some neighbors already hard at work who also had the same late-night urge. In between bursts of activity, we’d all rest on our shovels and commiserate as if we’d just finished raising a barn - masked and socially distanced, of course.

When I went back inside, I watched as they stood there talking for some time while the snow piled up upon them and erased our work. No one seemed to mind. The next day we were out there again, happy to be out of the house.

Hope you enjoyed the snow too. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 314

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2021 AT 9:36AM

Good Morning everyone,

I usually write these missives throughout the day, little by little, putting the finishing touches on after work. That’s probably not the best time of day to edit ones work but my HOK commitments have picked-up noticeably since early November and thus pushed my unscheduled activities like this one until late.

The downside of doing detailed work when I’m tired is that I make mistakes—like yesterday when “angle” became “angel.” Not life threatening or anything just a little embarrassing. I’ve had a speedover-accuracy problem ever since I learned how to throw a baseball. But that’s another story which, if this goes on much longer, I’m sure you’ll hear about.

I have no defense. My brain registers words so convincingly that my eyes second guess themselves and ultimately go along. That’s probably what happened when the venerable Italian cycling company Bianchi boasted about the new kit I bought. Errors are always hidden in plain sight…if you know where to look.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 314

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2021 AT 7:35PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I want to be reassured everything will be alright so I’m constantly try to match solutions to the questions around me.

Some days I feel like I have answers looking for questions. They’re stored in the recesses of my mind waiting to be recalled to solve a problem I didn’t even know existed. Like a reverse microwave oven that makes everything instantly cold. Or the Starbucks Vaccine Café.

Other days I have nothing but questions. When will the vaccine be available? What will the post-pandemic economy look like? Will there ever be such a thing as a relaxing vacation again? Who will become famous for compromising? Should there be a limit on Super Bowl wins?

I don’t know. Perhaps a reverse-microwave vaccine café at the Super Bowl with mediator-baristas is what I need.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 315

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2021 AT 6:50PM

Good Evening everyone,

In college, my running joke was that I was so poor I couldn’t even pay attention.

Today I read that, about that time, a prescient theoretical physicist named Michael Goldhaber began worrying about how the information age was affecting society because, he said, “one of the most finite resources in the world is human attention”.

By the late 1990’s he coined the term “attention economy” which describes the time we live in today where advertising, social media, entertainment and politics all insistently vie for our limited attention.

I think it’s both poetic and practical that our attention be considered a precious resource and, as such, be guarded and lent with care. Of course, this daily missive is yet another demand on your attention but I trust it will be a good return on your investment.

Thankfully, I’m no longer poor but more than ever I have to, “…pay attention to where [I] pay attention”.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 316

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2021 AT 5:47PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Last month it seemed like New York got the weather normally intended for us – temperature in the ‘teens and 22 inches of snow. For a minute there, I thought we’d skip the deep freeze and go right to spring. Alas, January finally arrived in Chicago albeit a few weeks late.

On the bright side, we can look forward to “March coming in like a lion and (hopefully) out like a lamb”.

Have good weekend and enjoy the game.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 318

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2021 AT 7:14PM

Good Evening everyone,

Now that the Super Bowl is over, I can look forward to never having to see another NFL season like that.

It’s not that I don’t want to see the sandlot antics from Patrick Mahomes or the military precision of one Tom Brady. I do. But I won’t miss football players taking and giving beatings in front of cardboard cut-outs inside vacuous stadiums.

Some sports are still fantastic even without fans (no pun). Maybe because I grew up going to Wrigley but baseball is like that for me. As a fan, I always felt more like I was eavesdropping on something that would be happening whether or not I was watching. Basketball is similar in part because pickup games are happily played in front of virtually no one. However, it’s inconceivable to just rock up on a football game in full swing.

Pro football is also brutally hard. What other sports requires its teams to have an orthopedic surgeon, x-ray equipment and an ambulance - at every game? ! It’s difficult for me to believe that the players, even for vast sums they make, would put themselves through all of that for what basically amounts to a weekly scrimmage.

That’s my 0.02 (which is all I have left. thanks KC)

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 320

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2021 AT 6:37PM

Hello everyone,

For those of you keeping track at home, today is Day 320 but yesterday I mistook 318 for 319.

It’s no one’s fault. They look so much alike. But actually they’re really quite different. To start with one is odd and the other even. How could I miss that?

To be honest though, it’s not the first time. Lately, I’ve been finding it harder and harder to distinguish one day from another. I just don’t notice the differences any more. Kind of like all the days all running together. Weird, right?

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 321

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2021 AT 6:23PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

Some odds & ends I’ve gathered from speaking with our colleagues from around the firm:

January

! 2021 is off to a slow start: fees, profit and new commissions are down compared to our business plan.

! Our fiscal year actually began 28 DEC (a vacation week for most people) and January has five weeks. These partly contributed to our slow start.

Clients

! It’s a buyer’s market. Clients are inflexible with regards to their contractual and scope demands.

! Clients remain cautious. Contracts are awarded by phase (rather than all at once).

! New projects once won are slow to start.

Business Development

! In many offices, the number of marketing opportunities remains low.

! Fewer projects and more competitors equals extreme pressure to keep fees low.

! US and Canadian government spending is expected to increase opportunities for HOK.

Markets

! Healthcare and S+T remain strong across the US, Canada and UK.

! The corporate interiors market is still trying to recover. However, San Francisco, St. Louis and Toronto are still active.

! Developers are pivoting from commercial office to life-science labs. We’ve seen this in the US and the UK.

! Aviation market is still hurting although we continue to win major work at Salt Lake and LAX.

Geographies

! Our strongest areas are the mid-Atlantic, northern California, Florida and St. Louis area.

! The UK is starting to recover from Covid and Brexit.

! Asia always starts the year slowly because of the combination of western holidays and Chinese New Year (which starts Friday).

Happy Year of the Ox! Take care, Riccardo

DAY 322

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 AT 5:00PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

What would it be like to have the worst time of your life coincide with the pinnacle of your career?

I think of that question each time I see Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) at the lectern in the US Senate. His role as the lead manager in the impeachment trial will no doubt be the highlight of his career as a lawyer, professor and congressman. And yet, it also comes just weeks after his son took this own life.

I only caught a bit of Raskin’s closing statement this afternoon when, without a hint of the sorrow he must be feeling, he quoted Thomas Paine, the revolutionary patriot for whom his son was named. I think I detected a wye smile from Raskin as he quoted “Common Sense” from memory to close his remarks.

You can judge the merit of his argument for yourself but being able to perform at such a high level in time of extreme emotional distress captured my attention. It certainly makes my own difficulties seem minor by any measure.

Just a thought this afternoon.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 323

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2021 AT 11:41AM

Good Morning everyone,

Today is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. It’s also happens to be, you know, mine. In a twist of irony, I will celebrate by takingmthe day off and going to the office!

When I was a kid, I didn’t go to school on my birthday because Lincoln’s Birthday was a national holiday and, growing up in Illinois, I was somewhat of a celebrity. That is until they combined Honest Abe’s with George Whatshisname’s which resulted in a very grown-up sounding “three day weekend” - which is fine when your 20-something and want to go skiing but its untethered to history and, much to my younger self ’s chagrin, no longer connected to me whatsoever.

Which brings me to Darwin. He sailed around the world for five years, returned to England at 27, published On the Origin of Species twenty years later and arguably changed science and religion forever. He never had a holiday named in his honor or had to share one with someone else for that matter. In his own twist of irony, one of the greatest travelers ever never left home again.

Have a good day and a great weekend. Take care, Riccardo p.s. Happy Birthday Reanna!

Good Afternoon everyone,

There’s an rule-of-thumb that says 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients.

Roger Martin the former dean at the Rotman School of Management at UToronto and who writes on Design Thinking, prefers the word “heuristic” over rule-of-thumb but it’s essential the same—something that’s derived empirically through experiment and observation. The 80/20 Rule is also known as the Pareto principle and it generically describes a phenomenon where 80% of consequences comes from 20% of the causes. The “causes” are known as the “vital few.”

Last year, 20% of our projects generated 89% of our fees. Of those which made money, 20% of our projects made 83% of our profits. So, pretty close to 80/20. Our vital few in 2020 were:

It can be disheartening to think that so few projects contribute to our financial success. However, our success is measured in a variety of ways and each project we work on is a chance for us to hone our craft, make wonderful things, develop client relationships and collect hard-earned fees so that each subsequent project, we get better and better. That’s why they call it a practice.

Make it a great week. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 327

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021 AT 7:53PM

Good Evening everyone,

Early this morning I saw a women pawing her way through the fresh snow looking for her car. She knew enough to know that she need to start by uncovering the license plate but not enough to distinguish a car from just a big pile of snow. After probing one of each in front of our house, she shuffled off and never returned. I think she might have gotten the street wrong.

For my part it’s been a long time since I shoveled snow without anyone telling me to and it’s been even longer since I shoveled snow over my head. After an all-day meeting, I enjoyed getting out of the house, clearing the sidewalk, front stoop, back porch, roof, etc. and doing my duty, as it were.

I hope you could appreciate snow in your own way.

Stay warm. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 328

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2021 AT 6:07PM

Good Evening everyone,

We just concluded a two day Executive Committee meeting. Normally we would go away to somewhere quiet to work but these days we meet by WebEx. Some of our agenda items follow the annual cycle of the business and are fixed while others are vary depending on the what’s happening around the firm. For example this week we discussed:

1. Firmwide Overview. We reviewed the performance of the firm and discussed parts which may require our special attention. For example, we discussed our how to encourage more offices to utilize HOK Engineering; how to be more competitive; and, what expertise we need to add to enhance all of HOK.

2. Compensation: We reviewed and approved recommendations for bonuses, raises and promotions. We talked through the logic of those recommendations, made adjustments and/or asked for further clarifications from the offices.

3. Board of Directors: Members of the board are elected to serve oneyear terms (April-March). We reviewed the composition of the board and made adjustments to the slate for the coming year.

4. Succession Planning: We looked beyond our current leaders to those who are demonstrating the potential to move into key positions across the firm in the future.

5. Return to Office: We discussed the latest thinking on when and how to return to work in our offices from a HR, legal and operations standpoints.

I will share more with you when we develop and finalize these items as and when appropriate.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 329

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 AT 12:46PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

As we close in on the one year anniversary of the beginning of Our Great Experiment, I’ve been thinking about how we can celebrate such an remarkable milestone. I know it’s hard to throw a party these days, both literally and figuratively, especially since each time we get a glimpse of the real finish line, it turns out to be an illusion lost in a hall-of-mirrors covered in fog. At least it does to me.

Some milestones come and go without much effect. Others like graduating college, passing registration exams or finishing your first marathon - all singular goals that you’ve worked for over time - come with rush of euphoria and relief. These can give you the confidence and determination to carry on and achieve even greater, more difficult things. I know 365 days of this ain’t that. However, we will have all done something worthy of acknowledging, even if it’s only raising a drink to toast one another. Afterall, it will be St. Patrick’s Day.

So, how do you think we should mark this occasion? Let’s talk about some ideas this afternoon on our call.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 330

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2021 AT 9:14AM

Good Morning everyone,

Yesterday Naomi Osaka beat Serena Williams in the Australian Open semifinal and we landed on Mars. What a time to be alive.

The world is full of the ordinary and the wonderful. The trick is to see the ordinary as wonderful and the wonderful as extraordinary.

Naomi is bona fide star who has quietly won three majors in her short career. (Ms. Williams has won 23). Meanwhile 128,000,000 miles away, NASA stuck the Mars landing for the eighth time.

Just another day on Planet Earth.

Have a good weekend. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 333

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2021 AT 7:37PM

Good Evening everyone,

I’ve been struggling about what to do about our bi-weekly all-staff meetings. The agendas have been a little thin and we don’t seem to be getting much from our time together. Last week, I missed the meeting altogether because I was caught on a call but, subconsciously, I wasn’t rushing to get back either.

That said, I do believe it’s important that we continue with our all-staff meetings because they reaffirm that we are, in fact, connected to each other. We don’t have the kitchenette anymore as our de facto rallying point so we’ll have to work at it a little harder – because the consequence of not staying connected is becoming untethered from each other until we’ll drift so far apart that there will be no reason to come back together.

I’ll do more to make sure our agenda is replete with interesting and timely subjects starting next week.

Meanwhile, let’s stay connected. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 334

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2021 AT 5:49PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I hope you had time to step outside to enjoy the (relatively) warm weather —all of 45º. I missed the sun today but I am going to go out now and take a short walk to the post office!

It’s the little things in life that matter. See you tomorrow. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 335

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2021 AT 3:27PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

In sailing when countervailing weather systems converge near the equator, the result is a windless stretch of ocean known as the doldrums. A version of the doldrums occurs in microclimates all over world and Lake Michigan is no exception. For a skipper whose sole purpose is to optimize wind flowing over the sails to generate speed, sailing in through the doldrums, wherever they may be, can be a humbling experience.

It can also frustrate the crew because it can take hours to reach port well within view. Instead, the normally high-strung crew is left to bob up and down, directionless, on a beautiful piece of drifting furniture.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the doldrums lately as the pandemic and winter drag on. Some days I feel like the humbled skipper, other days I feel like the frustrated crew. But lately, I’ve been feeling more like a drifting piece of furniture.

This week, we were teased with spring-like weather and positive news on the COVID front and, for the first time in a long while, I felt the breeze pick up.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 336

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 AT 6:44PM

Good Evening everyone,

Tomorrow we will have completed 9 of 52 weeks of the year. It seems like time is moving faster than before COVID - perhaps not, but it appears that way to me.

In any event, I hope you’ve had a productive 1/365th. March starts Monday.

See you tomorrow. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 337

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2021 AT 4:46PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I want to thank everyone who had a hand in designing, developing and launching our new monthly e-newsletter, Impact Inquisitor—in your inbox now!

The inaugural issue features Black History Month; highlights our efforts to help Dunbar High School students; connects us to resources; and, shows us where we can volunteer our time and donate our money to make a difference in the communities we care about.

A special mention goes to Flor, Patrick and Scott. They are—and this is—the best of HOK at work.

Have a good weekend. Take good care, Riccardo

MARCH

DAY 340

MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2021 AT 10:19AM

Good Morning everyone,

Just before taking out the garbage at my cousins’ house in East Chicago, they would remind me to cut up any cardboard so that nothing was larger than 12”x12”. I thought they were being overly fastidious like my Aunt but they weren’t. Their house rule was brought on by necessity: the landfills were filling up and the city, seeing an opportunity in crisis, charged more to haul away unwieldy garbage. The steel mill workers like my Uncle took it in stride because they could see firsthand the impact waste of all kinds was having on northwest Indiana. Meanwhile back in Cook County, we were still leaving whole disused refrigerators at the curb for pick up and not thinking twice about it. That was in 1978.

I was thinking about that on Saturday when I was cutting up Amazon boxes to fit into our blue recycling bin. Chicago recycles less than 10% of its recyclable waste which, incidentally, looks to be about the same percentage of garbage that actually makes it into any bin in my alley. In spite of that, I try to do my part to save the planet by saving space at the dump.

Ironically, my cousins moved to the sunbelt and they think that I’m the one being fastidious.

Have a good week. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 341

TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2021 AT 5:17PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

As long as I’m on the subject of recycling, I read in the Trib today that the European Union is requiring manufacturers to stock replacement parts for ten years to help reduce the amount of electrical waste by facilitating DIY repair. Europeans produce 35 pounds of electronic waste a year and about half of that comes from household appliances – of that, only 40% is recycled. (I can’t even image how much we chuck out every year). New devices will come with instructions on how to disassemble and fix using conventional tools. So much for star shaped screws.

In this county, there is a similar movement pushing legislation called, “right to repair”. It seems like a common sense idea that might take the sting out of tossing stuff that otherwise could be easily fixed. Seizing upon an opportunity to cash in on our guilt and save the planet, repair cafes have already sprung up in Germany.

I’m no evangelist but a good idea is a good idea.

Have a good evening. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 342

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 2021 AT 7:12PM

Good Evening everyone,

During our First Thursday meeting tomorrow, we will present our work on Centre Block (the Canadian Parliament).

Four years ago, HOK teamed with WSP to win the commission to renovate and restore Centre Block and design a new, four-story belowgrade Parliament Welcome Centre (PWC). The entire project is a colossal undertaking which required the House of Commons, the Senate and the Library of Parliament to decant to other buildings (themselves the subject of multi-year restorations) for the next ten 10 years. The excavation for the PWC began a year ago and can been seen here in the foreground.

We were required to co-locate our entire team alongside the client, CM and other consultants in a new project office in Ottawa. In response, HOK did what only HOK can do: we created an entire practice from scratch for 250 people – including 45 from HOK, most of whom are new to the firm. Toronto, London and New York have another 25 people working on the project.

How did Chicago get involved? After 3 ½ years programming and Schematic Design, the client decided to revisit design decisions that had been put to bed years ago. They asked (told) me to field a new team from across HOK to come up with a new design for the pedestrian approach to the building and the sequence of public spaces throughout the PWC and Centre Block.

The client wasn’t sure we had the design chops but we demonstrated that of course we do and regained their trust. Four months later, we arrived at wonderful scheme which you will see tomorrow.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 343

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021 AT 6:20PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

It was good to see everyone during our First Thursday meeting. There’s a lot happening around our office and even more around the firm. We try to share what we can but, as you saw from today’s meeting, an hour twice a month cannot give the announcements, acknowledgements, benefits, policies, procedures and design work the justice they deserve. So, please reach out to your colleagues to learn more about what you’ve seen (or what you’ve missed). Taken as a whole, these things make up the common denominator of HOK culture.

Once again, congratulations to:

! Allision, Kyle, and Sebastian: for your wonderful work and putting up with four irritable Senior Principals with humor and grace.

! Kim and Sarah: for bringing your point of view, energy and intelligence to the management of our practice.

! Scott: for your passion and your impact on Impact.

! And Alec: for thriving during the most unique first-year in the history of first-years at HOK!

We thank you one and all.

Take good care, Riccardo

DAY 344

FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2021 AT 10:11AM

Good Morning everyone,

It’s March and our Christmas tree is still up. It helps that is not in the house but just a few feet away on the back deck. We typically keep the lights on all night and adds a festive glow to the alley like lights strung up over a beer garden.

Last fall we couldn’t wait to get a tree and send a clear signal to ourselves that end of 2020 was finally near. Now, we can’t take it down. It’s not that we’re wistful for 2020 or even Christmas for that matter, but it’s comforting in some odd way.

Since the weather has finally turned less Christmas-like, maybe we’ll take it down. Or maybe just keep it up. Easter tree? Hmmm.

Have a good weekend. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 347

MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021 AT 6:51PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I hope everyone had an opportunity to get out a bit this weekend and enjoy the relatively warm weather. Spring is around the corner.

We’re just putting the finishing touches on our financial close for February so it’s a little to early to say precisely how we did however, the accounting firm of Stern and Maute tells me we’re in good shape. Antidotally, we’ve been seeing an increase in business development activity across the firm with a few notable wins in California, DC and Toronto. In Chicago, the Healthcare, S+T and Justice markets have all picked up. We’ll be discussing all of this (and recent changes in design leadership in Toronto) next week during our board meeting. I’ll share the highlights with you afterwards.

Finally, I am pleased to say that tomorrow each of you will receive a bonus. Even though we work hard and are deserving, a bonus is never guaranteed but we all increase our chances when our work, our projects and our office contribute to the ongoing success of our firm. Sharing money with those who helped create it is one of the best parts of my job.

Congratulations and thank you for a truly extraordinary year.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 348

TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2021 AT 7:14PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

I started at HOK around this time in Mexico City. I say “around this time” because, like the country where I lived, record keeping at HOK was poor and anniversaries, like birthdays, sometimes had to be approximated. My first meeting in the US was in St. Louis and I learned two good lessons from that trip:

The first came just after arriving to the office. After giving my name and being asked to take a seat, I was drawn to a large white model of the city where the St. Louis Arch cut its distinct figure. I could not resist touching it. Unfortunately, it could not resist me either and promptly fell over. Horrified, I picked up the piece and gingerly laid it upon the reception desk and sat down. When the Managing Principal came out to meet me, I confessed. He was puzzled but could not have cared less. We’ll make a new one, he said. Lesson Number 1: Anything you break can be fixed.

Later, when we went around the room to gather opinions on something, I tried to make too many points, rambled and spoke too long. After which, Bill Valentine (former chairman) subtlety admonished me that if everyone took as long as I had, we’d be there forever. Hence, Lesson Number 2: You don’t have to share everything that’s on your mind.

The first two lessons of many more to come. That was twenty-six years ago.

More or less. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 349

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2021 AT 7:23PM

Good Evening everyone,

If the amount of meetings is any indication, I’d say things are really picking up. It’s a shame we don’t get paid by the (spoken) word. I’m not complaining! Hopefully its sign of good things to come.

I’ll leave you to enjoy your evening.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 350

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021 AT 6:05PM

Good Evening everyone,

My computer is counting down to restart. It may or may not be legit but I’m taking it as a sign to stop working now.

I hope you’ll do the same.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 351

FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 2021 AT 6:15PM

Good Evening everyone,

Have a good weekend. See you Monday. Take care, Riccardo

DAY 354

MONDAY, MARCH 15, 2021 AT 6:31PM

Good Afternoon everyone,

When it’s all said and done, what will we remember about this past year?

For me, it will be the ephemeral moments that came and went quickly but now seem to grow more poignant - like the drive I took with my daughter on a beautiful sunny day last fall. It was textbook daddydaughter time ginned up to get us out of the house.

When we came to a stop light in Grant Park, we could see that an ambulance and a red CFD car had pulled over. From a block away we could see two women in uniform standing between the bumpers. It was clear that the paramedic was distraught and sobbing and being consoled.

When we approached, they hugged and she was now starring into the traffic. As we drove by, I yelled some words of encouragement and for brief moment she burst out laughing. Why she was there on the side of the road crying, we’ll never know but we could guess.

We talked about that on the way home and about just how lucky we are. And that’s really all we need to remember.

Take care, Riccardo

DAY 355

TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2021 AT 6:27PM

Good Evening everyone,

Yesterday, we held our monthly board of director’s meeting. Here’s a few highlights:

! After a slow January, we bounced back in February with a solid performance (HOK: fees $20m, profit $3m / CHI: $1.1m, 12.2%)

! We continue to keep a close eye on backlog – signed contracts (HOK: 10.5 months of fees / CHI: 7.7 months).

! We have been awarded 21 new major commissions since the end of December. Future fees from this work is estimated to be over $94m.

! The censuses is that we’ve become more collaborative, cohesive and nimble WFH.

! Many offices report being able to field the best team (regardless of location) has had a positive effect on winning new work.

! Sustainability: AIA 2030 Challenge - goal is a 80% reduction in Energy Use Intensity (compared to 2004). The industry is at 49%. (HOK: 56% / CHI: 40%). We have a lot of work to do in Chicago.

In tough times, we forget that our strategy to maintain a diverse design practice is the envy of the industry. This does not mean we can take our foot off the gas - two months does not a year make but it’s a solid start.

Take care, Riccardo

I hope you can escape, too. If only for a little while. Take care, – Riccardo.