Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum

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Rendering of Sprint Center in Kansas City[1]

Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum or HOK is a major, international architecture, interiors, engineering, planning and consulting firm established in 1955. The firm is headquartered in St. Louis, MO and the name of the company is derived from the surnames of its three founding partners, George Hellmuth, Gyo Obata and George Kassabaum, all graduates of the School of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Tuntex Sky Tower in Kaohsiung

The practice's first building was a school in a St. Louis suburb, Saint Louis Priory School. By the mid-1960s, the firm was winning commissions across the United States and began to open additional offices, starting with San Francisco in 1966. By the 1970s the firm was operating internationally and in 1975 the firm was named as architect of the $350,000 King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, at the time the single largest project in the world.

In 1983, HOK formed HOK Sport + Venue + Event, which has since become the leader in its field of specialty projects such as stadiums, arena and convention centers. HOK S+V+E is more widely known to the general public than its parent due to the nature of the projects it does.

HOK's first office outside the United States opened in Hong Kong in 1984 and HOK has continued to expand by open additional offices in the United States and around the world and acquisition of other leading firms. In November of 1994 HOK acquired CRSS Architects, Inc. based in Houston, Texas adding offices in Houston, Atlanta and Orlando.

HOK is also an innovator in the building design industry. The company has greatly influenced how the business of architecture is run and in 1983 HOK introduced HOK Draw, one of the first computer-aided drafting software products.

HOK is also a leader in sustainable design (commonly referred to as "Green Architecture"). Professionals in the firm authored one of the industry's most respected resources on the topic, "The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design," originally published in 2000 by John Wiley & Sons. A second edition of the book was published in 2005.

As of 2006 the firm maintains over 1,800 professional staff across four continents and is active in all major architectural specialties.

1 Global Offices
2 Former Office Locations
3 Services
4 Markets Served
5 Selected projects
6 External link

[edit] Global Offices

Chicago, IL
Dallas, TX
Tampa, FL
Houston, TX
Kansas City, MO (HOK S+V+E Headquarters)
Los Angeles, CA
New York City, NY
Ottawa, ON Canada
St. Louis, MO (Headquarters)
San Francisco, CA
Washington, DC
Toronto, ON Canada
London, England
Shanghai, China
Hong Kong
Mexico City, Mexico
HOK Euronet - affiliated firms in Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Rome)