 |
| HOK designers from around the globe are able to collaborate and interact in real time in the fi rm’s new Advanced Collaboration Rooms. The high-tech videoconferencing spaces allow users to display (in high defi nition) and mark up multiple project-related documents simultaneously. |
9. HOK Takes Videoconferencing to A New Level with its Advanced Collaboration Rooms
To help foster collaboration among its 2,212 employees while cutting travel time, expenses, and carbon emissions traveling between its 24 office locations, HOK is fitting out its major offices with prototype videoconferencing rooms that are like no other in the U.S.
HOK's Advanced Collaboration Rooms (ACR) combine Cisco's TelePresence high-resolution, interoperable videoconferencing technology with PolyVision's Thunder Virtual Flipchart System—a sort of digital easel pad that allows HOK designers to sketch ideas and "virtually" hang them in multiple ACRs so the entire team can collaborate in real time.
Thunder allows users to display images, video, documents, and even live views of computer desktops. Using a series of projectors and flat-screen TVs in each ACR, multiple ideas and documents can be displayed at one time, and all meeting notes can be saved, printed, and emailed instantly to participants.
"The ability to bring HOK's best creative minds together in these ACRs is a powerful new tool for our virtual design teams," says HOK CEO Patrick MacLeamy, who led the effort to develop the ACR concept. ACRs are currently installed at seven HOK offices, with six more installations planned this year.10. More AEC Collaboration Solutions
Collaboration tools are big at AEC firms. Architecture firm Perkins Eastman links its 13 offices worldwide through its award-winning proprietary intranet system, ORCHARD, which stands for "Online Resource for the Creative Harvest of Architecturally Relevant Discovery" (catchy, isn't it?). ORCHARD unites the firm's Practice Area Communities to share best design practices, insights, and lessons learned. More on Perkins Eastman's ORCHARD
Over at AEC giant Heery International, "e-communities" enable partnering between the firm's offices around the country. Interior designer Judy Peterson used the e-community to get feedback on whether a project should use LEED-CI alone, or LEED-CI with LEED for Core & Shell. The decision: CI only. More on Heery's e-communities
Engineering firm Walter P Moore created its "Communities of Practice" in 2008 to share expertise across its 13 offices. The "COPs"—in its healthcare, sports, aviation, parking consulting, and tall buildings practices—are staffed on a voluntary basis. The healthcare COP, with 27 volunteers, formed its own Medical Equipment Task Group to inventory medical equipment used in hospital projects. "It's great, because the folks in Houston and Florida who have seen every MRI known to man can pass that along to our new offices in California," says Kurt Young, PE, LEED AP, leader of WPM's healthcare COP. More on Walter P Moore's Communities of Practice
Related Stories
Giants 400 | Sep 8, 2015
RETAIL SECTOR GIANTS: Callison RTKL, PCL Construction, Jacobs among top retail sector AEC firms
BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest retail sector design and construction firms, as reported in the 2015 Giants 300 Report
BIM and Information Technology | Sep 7, 2015
The power of data: How AEC firms and owners are using analytics to transform design and construction
Case’s bldgs = data conference highlighted how collecting data about personal activities can inform design and extend the power of BIM/VDC.
Sponsored | Architects | Sep 4, 2015
Sydney-based Architectural Firm Dramatically Increases Productivity
ArchiOffice enables the firm to spend less time on managing projects by providing relevant information in one place.
Industrial Facilities | Sep 3, 2015
DATA CENTER SECTOR GIANTS: Fluor, Gensler, Holder Construction among top data center AEC firms
BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest data center sector design and construction firms, as reported in the 2015 Giants 300 Report
High-rise Construction | Sep 3, 2015
Rafael Viñoly's 'Walkie-Talkie' tower named U.K.'s worst new building
The curved, glass tower at 20 Fenchurch Street in London has been known to reflect intense heat onto the streets below (in one instance damaging a car) and cause severe wind gusts.
Airports | Aug 31, 2015
Surveys gauge users’ satisfaction with airports
Several surveys gauge passenger satisfaction with airports, as flyers and airlines weigh in on technology, security, and renovations.
Airports | Aug 31, 2015
Small and regional airports in a dogfight for survival
Small and regional airports are in a dogfight for survival. Airlines have either cut routes to non-hub markets, or don’t provide enough seating capacity to meet demand.
Airports | Aug 31, 2015
Airports expand rental car facilities to ease vehicular traffic at their terminals
AEC teams have found fertile ground in building or expanding consolidated rental car facilities, which are the No. 1 profit centers for most airports.
Airports | Aug 31, 2015
Experts discuss how airports can manage growth
In February 2015, engineering giant Arup conducted a “salon” in San Francisco on the future of aviation. This report provides an insight into their key findings.
Healthcare Facilities | Aug 28, 2015
Hospital construction/renovation guidelines promote sound control
The newly revised guidelines from the Facilities Guidelines Institute touch on six factors that affect a hospital’s soundscape.
