Building and strengthening the firm’s design culture while spreading the value of design to local communities is the vision of the HKS Design Fellowship. The Fellowship – founded in 2006 – brings together the firm’s brightest design-minded talent from all over the world and pairs them with students to work on a specific design problem in the community. The goal: cultivate emerging design talent, excite and stimulate new ideas, and deepen the design philosophy across all of HKS’s offices in an effort to continue to raise the quality of design. Going beyond an isolated design exercise, the charrette seeks participation from key community stakeholders. The product of each year’s event is a deliverable that may be used to help further the issue being addressed. The 2010 HKS Design Fellows worked – on a pro-bono basis – with Omar Jahwar, founder and chief visionary officer of Vision Regeneration, to design a new inner-city community center expansion aimed at reducing crimes committed by teens in South Dallas/Oak Cliff. HKS Design Fellowship drawings and documents are being used as marketing materials for Vision Regeneration’s fundraising efforts. The center is projected to open in 2013.
Archive for July, 2011
What Really Matters
Monday, July 25th, 2011New Green Tower in Miami – The COR Building
Monday, July 18th, 2011
A new high rise is going up in Miami’s design district, and its a lean, green, eco machine. A collaboration between Chad Oppenheim architecture + design, energy consultant Buro Happold, and structural engineer Ysreal Seinuk, the $40 million, 25-story, “COR” building will incorporate mixed-use residential and commercial space, integrating green technologies including wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, and solar hot water generation. The building’s exoskeleton is a hyper-efficient structure that provides thermal mass for insulation, shade for residents, and architectural elements such as terraces and armatures that support turbines.
Valenta to Speak at Autodesk University 2011 Conference
Thursday, July 14th, 2011
Steve Valenta, project architect with HKS, Inc., was selected to speak at Autodesk University 2011 Conference and Exhibition to be held November 29 – December 1 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.
Valenta’s 90-minute presentation, “Collaborate with the Extended Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) Team Using Revit Server and Project Bluestreak,” will expound on the following topics:
- How Revit Server and Project Bluestreak will allow you to virtually work side-by-side with partner engineers, architects and contractors on a single model.
- How a real IPD team successfully implemented Revit Server to collaborate remotely on a singlebuilding information model.
- How to set up a site-to-site VPN among Revit servers hosted in different firms.
- How WAN accelerators, like Riverbed appliances, coupled with Revit Server can optimize performance of the BIM across wide geographic distances.
- How to maintain over-the-shoulder-like communication with the extended team using Project Bluestreak.
- How to overcome the issue of who is doing what in the model by using worksets to divide modeling responsibilities.
Valenta, with more than 10 years of experience, is an industry leader in Building Information Modeling technology and has sat on the AIA Large Firm Roundtable’s BIM Implementers Forum. He received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Texas Tech University.
Autodesk is a world leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Its Autodesk University offers a year-round learning and networking experience that helps members develop professionally and advance their careers. AU’s flagship event is its annual conference and exhibition in Las Vegas, where design professionals from around the world attend classes, keynotes, product demonstrations, exhibits and networking events.
HKS, Inc. is a leading architectural design firm ranked among the top five architectural and engineering firms, according to Building Design+Construction magazine, and among the top 11 architectural firms, according to BD World Architecture magazine. Since its founding in 1939, HKS has completed construction projects totaling more than $69 billion in more than 1,069 cities located in 46 states, the District of Columbia and 65 foreign countries. The firm operates from 23 offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.hksinc.com.
Virginia Tech Vet Med Groundbreaking
Thursday, July 7th, 2011 
The campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) will be breaking ground this month on the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM) Instructional Addition. The Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM) is a regional professional school built upon the strong foundations of two of the nation’s leading land-grant universities: Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and the University of Maryland at College Park. As the profession of veterinary medicine is rising to meet society’s needs, so is VMRCVM’s growing need for adequate facilities to further the school’s comprehensive educational programs, advanced clinical care in the region, and its animal and biomedical research programs. (more…)