Book Review: Designing a World-Class Architecture Firm
Designing a World-Class Architecture Firm, by Patrick MacLeamy, FAIA
(Wiley and Sons: Houston, 2020)
From the title, I initially thought this book was about design. But make no mistake: it is all about marketing, winning projects, corporate strategies, organization, operation, business, growth and the profitability of HOK, which has office in numerous major cities and projects in over 50 countries. This makes sense when you look at the firm?s leadership. Architect Gyo Obata co-founded and led HOK for 10 years, but all of its other CEOs came from the business and management side of things?up until the present, when a designer, William Hellmuth, is once again at the helm.
William is the nephew of another of the firm?s co-founders, George Hellmuth. The senior Hellmuth grew up watching his own father?s architectural firm go through cycles of boom and bust. They hired staff, trained them for each project, but had to let them go in the absence of the next project in line. George was determined to change this vicious cycle, through creating a new kind of architectural practice. This book is about the people, stories, and strategies behind that firm, HOK. The book is organized chronologically in four main periods, as the firm evolved under the leadership of George Hellmuth, Gyo Obata, Jerome Sincoff and Patrick MacLeamy (the latter is the book?s author).
Lambert Airport Terminal, St. Louis, MO. Photo Ezra Stoller/Esto, courtesy of HOK.
This focus on business sidesteps HOK?s cr...
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