From Hinge:
"Call it a serendipitous meeting of ideals. Or a case of everything harmoniously clicking together. No matter how you slice it, the Winrock International Headquarters Building in Little Rock, Arkansas, surpasses expectations on a multitude of levels — context, sensitivity to the client's corporate culture, design, and sustainability."

"Conceived by the New York office of HOK, the US$4 million, 24,275-square-foot facility built to house 75 employees is more than a corporate building. It acts as a physical manifestation of Winrock's mission statement to work 'with people around the world to increase economic opportunity, sustain natural resources, and protect the environment.'"

"With such lofty goals in mind, it would be understandable if the headquarters' aesthetic (were) less than extraordinary. Happily, the building is both refreshingly handsome and organically responsive to its site. No wonder it was awarded a LEED gold rating last year, the first office building ever to receive the honour."

"HOK is something of a pioneer when it comes to greet architecture. It released its second edition of The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design last year. …It has a number of international projects under its belt to substantiate success in this area. In the case of Winrock, it was a matter of looking to elements in the company's culture and the building's surroundings for inspiration. … 'We feel we have created a poetic yet economical design,' says HOK New York Director of Design Kenneth Drucker."

Source: "Flights of Fancy: Winrock International Headquarters," Hinge magazine, vol. 127.

From Perspective:
"It is quite apparent that ‘green’ would be the shorthand for both environmental awareness and cold, hard cash. Up to now, at least, prevailing wisdom is that you cannot have the former without generous helpings of the latter, particularly when it comes to architecture."

"So at first glance, it’s tempting to think that the exceptional sustainability of the new Winrock International headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas, must have come at a considerable price. The work of the New York City office of HOK, the structure recently won a LEED Gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), an organisation devoted to promoting designs and products that are not just sustainable, but also provide higher performance than their more conventional equivalents. LEED certification, in other words, is a sort of Holy Grail of sustainability – healthier and better. Besides the Winrock headquarters, just 70 other buildings across America share the distinction of a LEED rating."

"High praise indeed – but especially when one learns that Winrock’s new headquarters was designed and built according to a uniquely far-sighted brief. Given the nature of the client, it was only natural that it should be. Founded by Winthrop Rockefeller, Winrock International is a non-profit organisation that aims to “increase economic opportunity, sustain natural resources, and protect the environment.” In appointing HOK for the project, they challenged the practice to design a sustainable global headquarters at a budget competitive with conventional office buildings."

According to Rhoda Chan, the LEED-accredited project architect, the client asked that we create a ‘replicable’ design that could be seen as a new precedent for innovation in Arkansas.

"Winrock International’s headquarters is a building with a great deal to prove, and thanks to HOK’s supremely intelligent design, it succeeds in all respects. There is nothing particularly exotic about the structure, and none of its features forced the adoption of new skills or methods on the part of the construction crew. It is thoroughly real-world. In the words of Frank Tugwell, Winrock International president and chief executive officer, 'Our building shows that it doesn’t take a lot of money, just good planning and common sense to build green.'"

Perspective,” March 2006.