Читать книгу Designing a World-Class Architecture Firm - Patrick MacLeamy - Страница 32

HOK was just 12 years old when I joined in 1967, with 150 people in two offices and a growing list of varied design commissions in St. Louis and elsewhere. Innovation had become a core value at HOK, and I could see it everywhere.

I had never worked in a large, innovative firm before. The six-man practice in the Alton area, where I had spent summers, was a typical small firm. For example, when the firm won a new school project, the junior partner came up with a design. But when it came time to add details to the design—things like how the windows, doors, and lobby should look—the chief draftsman pulled drawings of the last school project from a drawer and assigned other draftsmen, including me, to trace over the old details to make details for the new school. The result was that most schools looked much the same. Innovation was absent at the firm and in its work.

Small firms followed the methods of the past, practicing an ongoing craft that carried forward from one project to the next. They drew everything by hand, in pencil, on vellum—a translucent paper used for drafting. The only machines in the typical small architecture office were telephones, a coffee machine, a typewriter for the secretary, and a printer for large drawings.

By contrast, when I arrived at HOK, innovation was encouraged—and expected—of everyone.