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The founders retained 26 HYL staff members as new HOK employees. The new firm had a ready-made backlog of work, thanks to existing HYL projects, giving Hellmuth time to cultivate future clients. The most notable project HYL turned over to HOK was completion of the new terminal complex for Lambert St. Louis Airport. At a time when most airports were imitations of railway stations, Lambert's terminal was seminal, a gently curving space that conveyed a feeling of lightness that was a fitting transition for passengers about to travel by air.

FIGURE 2.8 Lambert Airport terminal, St. Louis, Missouri.

Source: Photo by Ezra Stoller/Esto. Photo courtesy of HOK.

St. Louis Magazine would later say of Lambert, “When the main terminal was completed in 1956, it instantly became what architectural historian Michael Allen called ‘a landmark that really set the standard.’” The magazine went on to say, “The terminals at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, the District of Columbia's Dulles International Airport, and Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport—all built in a sweeping midcentury style—are said to have been inspired by Lambert's elegant lines.”⁶

A tricky issue arose. Who would take credit for design of the Lambert Airport terminal complex? Yamasaki listed the project as his creation since he led conceptual design while at HYL. Obata had assisted Yamasaki with the design at HYL and completed the project at HOK, so he also took credit. There's an old-but-true saying in architecture: Poorly designed projects are orphans, but successful designs have many parents!

One of the earliest commissions Hellmuth won for the newly minted HOK was to design the chapel at Priory School in suburban St. Louis, which was run by the Benedictine Order of monks. He had a bit of an advantage. Hellmuth's four sons attended Priory School and he knew everyone there. The chapel had unique requirements. Each monk was obliged to say mass every morning, so the Benedictines needed a chapel with many altars. Of course, they also needed enough space to accommodate the congregation at Sunday mass.

FIGURE 2.9 Priory Chapel, St. Louis Missouri.

Source: Photo by George Silk. Photo courtesy of HOK.

Obata's unique design concept emerged as a round chapel with altars all around the perimeter. He worked in collaboration with famed engineer Pier Luigi Nervi to develop an iconic façade featuring three tiers of whitewashed, thin-shell concrete parabolic arches. The first tier of 20 arches contains altars for the monks to say mass in the mornings before school. The second tier of arches steps back from the first tier and contains high windows bringing light to the chapel interior. The third tier of arches steps back from the second tier to form a bell tower. The main altar is in the center of the chapel for Sunday mass. The Benedictine Order was delighted with the completed chapel and Obata had established himself as a new force in the world of design. Other projects followed, including McDonnell Planetarium, the building that attracted me to HOK.

HOK landed its first substantial commission in 1961, a new campus for Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. The project required establishment of an Illinois office, and the firm's first, modest attempt at geographic diversification was underway.