"For its headquarters, the Canadian branch of HOK chose a large space in a nondescript building in Toronto's West End. …The result is a workspace that is bright, open, clean – and green."

"The overall scheme of the open-plan studio – a fifth-floor renovation at 720 King Street West – is white in colour and bright in effect. The workstations for the 125 or so designers, separated by low partitions, are attractively spaced on a broad grid. The clear, open layout – glass-enclosed offices are assigned according to the need for privacy, not the hierarchy – is washed by even, calming north light coming through a strip of glass running the length of the studio. Glass walls, translucent and transparent, allow light into meeting rooms and offices close to the building's core."

"'As a design firm striving to integrate sustainable design principles into all our projects, for every building type, geographic region and budget level, we recognized that our commitment had to begin in our own offices,' says Richard Williams, HOK vice president and practice leader. 'Our space demonstrates that healthy, uplifting workspaces can be enhanced by principles of environmental sustainability. In fact, return on investment in terms of energy savings and reduction of employee absenteeism is significant in the long term.'"

"As sustainable architecture goes, the HOK workplace is on the cutting edge in Canada. In January, it was granted gold LEED®-CI certification by the prestigious U.S. Green Building Council. This makes it the only Canadian office project east of the Rockies to receive the coveted seal of good environmental housekeeping."

"LEED approval is very much a matter of checking off a long list of such detailed specifications. But what finally counts most in this renovation is surely how well it functions as an amiable workplace for designing architecture on computers – and it appears to be doing that job very well."

Source: "The Office," Azure, June 2006, by John Bentley Mays.

More on HOK's Toronto office:
"The quality of this environment on move-in day was so much better than any I have seen in my 20 years in this business," said Don Crichton, HOK's Vice President-Workplace Solutions. "People who suffer from chronic environmental allergies tell me that they now feel better at work than at home. …We totally gutted the space, introducing new lighting and mechanical systems, which is where the real benefits come into play."

HOK received approval from the building owners to install operable windows in the multi-tenant building. "It was a big win for us," Crichton says.

The article details many of HOK's specific design strategies used for earning LEED-CI Gold certification.

Source: "A Pioneer in LEED-CI," Canadian Facility Management & Design, May 2006.