HOK Engineering - Meet our Team

Our years of experience designing across market sectors allow us to envision structural systems that support current and future needs for aviation, healthcare, civic, recreation and commercial typologies. To support our workflow, we develop parametric optimization modules in-house to link architectural design options with finite-element software. This allows us to generate and analyze a vast number of design options at once, validate real-time field data and provide quick and vetted engineering solutions for our architectural colleagues and clients.

We aim to stay at the forefront of developing HVAC engineering solutions that create safer and healthier environments for building occupants while reducing energy and emissions. Our award-winning projects are recognized by our peers in the HVAC industry. We mix creativity and innovation with proven tools to develop solutions that work not just on paper, but for real-world scenarios. We design for operations and maintenance knowing that a successful design solution is measured long after initial occupancy. We work closely with our fellow HOK architects and designers in a collaborative and integrated team environment that enables us to challenge norms and achieve optimal solutions.

HOK’s electrical engineering design scope includes mission-critical systems and clean rooms essential to cutting-edge facility design. Our electrical engineering practice is also key to achieving net-zero operations via photovoltaic systems, power generation, distribution networks and lighting controls. We ensure safety for our buildings and their occupants with monitoring systems, fire alarm and smoke detection and high, medium and low voltage systems.

HOK’s plumbing and fire protection engineers have designed one-of-a-kind projects all over the world. Whether it’s engineering decentralized water purification plants for net-zero corporate complexes in South America, state-of-the-art university research laboratories in the Middle East, solar domestic water systems for LaGuardia Airport or water reclamation for a  high-performance buildings, HOK’s plumbing engineers have made it possible. Our plumbing and fire protection engineers are valued members of an integrated HOK team, critical to achieving creative solutions to our most complex and large-scale projects.

HOK recognizes the importance of low voltage technologies to the built environment, reflected in the strength of our in-house team of IT&ES experts. The IT&ES team focuses on specialized high-security and communications infrastructure solutions for HOK’s Justice, Aviation + Transportation, Science + Technology, and Healthcare practices. Our IT&ES team has enabled cutting-edge security and communications innovations critical to the success of LaGuardia Terminal B, Salt Lake City Airport and O’Hare Terminal 5. The IT&ES team also led the design process on several of the nation’s most complex justice projects in recent years. We are excited to continue to advance the field by making buildings smarter, more adaptable and more secure for users and clients.

Our facade practice leverages decades of experience across climate regions and building typologies to deliver elegant and functional building envelopes. We utilize facade design to minimize operational and embodied life-cycle carbon. This has allowed HOK to meet net-zero standards on projects with complex uses.

HOK’s facade team specializes in enclosure design, consulting, thermal performance analysis, structural analysis, and performance specifications. Our process spans ideation, hand sketches, parametric concept optimization, detailed heat transfer simulations, integration with energy and structural modeling and detailing. Working closely with owners, construction managers, fabricators and installers, we provide solutions that improve building aesthetics and performance.

HOK’s building physics professionals combine expertise in thermal analysis, fluid mechanics, building prototyping and commissioning to maximize sustainability and operations for the most demanding projects. Using advanced on-site technologies, thermal and CFD simulation, and sustainability assessments, we provide performance-based solutions that provide comfortable, healthy, energy-saving, and low-impact environments.

The HOK engineering and sustainability teams work closely to design concepts that integrate the landscape, available on-site energy and water resources, passive design and active MEP systems. This workflow links HVAC system design, facade system heat transfer analysis, and computational fluid dynamics with whole-building energy model and green certification programs. This process allows HOK to dramatically reduce the emissions and environmental impact of large-scale corporate, laboratory, educational and transit projects.

HOK’s research program encourages and supports visionary ideas from interdisciplinary design teams. From net-zero embodied and operational carbon laboratories to adaptation in densely populated urban areas facing sea level rise, the research program allows us to develop tools to approach a vast array of design challenges.

What started as a grassroot movement is initiative is fundamentally changing HOK’s approach to design. Our Design for Equity platform advocates for design solutions that prioritize equity, inclusion and community health and well-being.