HED is pleased to share that San Diego Pre K-12 Sector Leader Jennette La Quire, AIA, LEED AP ID+C, has been named a 2020 Influential Woman of San Diego by the San Diego Daily Transcript.

Jennette oversees educational facility projects in HED's San Diego Office and has made a lifetime commitment to creating a positive impact for school districts, both students and faculty. She works day to day with partners in the design and construction community to create tangible change in the city and beyond.

You can read her full interview in the print issue of The San Diego Transcript, but here are a few highlights:

In the Transcript Jennette explains, "If you asked me when I was a kid what I wanted to be when I grew up, it was an architect or a teacher." Her commitment to Architecture and Design is a career that brings together Jennette's love of building design and of academia.

The commitment shows.

Known for her mentorship within HED and for generosity with her time, Jennette shares her love of learning with college students as an adjunct professor for San Diego State University's Interior Architecture program. She sees it as her job not just to tell students how to design, but to help them refine their concepts.

"I tell them I'm their bumper in the bowling alley," she grins.

In her 15 years with HED, Jennette has worked with most of the school districts in and around San Diego on facilities ranging from pre-kindergarten through grade 12, as well as with Community Colleges and Universities. The projects negotiate the evolution of education, technology, and class sizes. Many have transformed how the community interacts with a campus, and all of them have been designed with student success at the forefront. Jennette has even done several projects at her alma mater, El Capitan High School in Lakeside, including a 16,000-square-foot, $11.2 million event center.

"I've worked there longer than I went to school there," she quipped. "I just am very passionate about educational design, whether it's teaching students or working with clients," she said. "That's my biggest focus - how can we use the design to advance their worlds."

HED is pleased to welcome Melina Aluwi, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, NCARB, to the firm as a Sector Leader and Associate Principal in the San Diego office. She will focus on Higher Education projects and will be supported by HED's extensive technical team of architects, engineers and designers.

With experience in both public and private sector educational, civic, cultural, and commercial sectors, Melina’s primary focus has been on education projects. She has worked in various roles from business development and operations to design and construction. With this experience, Melina brings a unique design and management approach to every project.

Prior to joining HED, Melina established herself as a leader and mentor within the profession and within the San Diego architectural community. She understands that a successful project consists of a passion for design and skillful technical execution.

Melina will be integral to HED's effectiveness toward its mission: Advancing Your World, seeking creative solutions that have a positive Impact for our clients, the community, and the world.

HED is pleased to announce that Chicago Housing Sector Leader Susan King, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C has been elected to the Illinois Housing Council Board.

The Illinois Housing Council (IHC) is the preeminent voice for industry leaders involved in the creation and preservation of affordable housing in Illinois. As a non-profit, member-based organization, IHC serves as a resource for information, education, and networking opportunities for members from across all sectors. IHC advocates for state-wide affordable-housing-friendly policy and legislation by building constructive relationships with local, state and federal officials and by serving as the ‘go-to’ organization for affordable housing in Illinois.

The success of IHC’s initiatives is rooted in the ability to bring together our members from all aspects of the industry.

"The majority of my career has been focused on the design of affordable housing. I am passionate about it, and believe it is a human right," says King, "Being involved with IHC is a very exciting opportunity for me personally and professionally, as it will not only provide me with a platform to help inform policy and legislation in regard to affordable housing, but will also allow me further support this group whose work deeply I believe in."

You can learn more about IHC and their work using the link below.

HED is pleased to announce six new additions to its studio / sector leadership team. This team of experts / thought leaders across a diverse range of typologies and geographies set direction for HED’s future growth.

The new leaders include:
• Yu-Ming Wei, AIA – Housing, Mixed-Use
• Drew Roskos, AIA, LEED AP, NCARB - Housing
• Sara Martin – Data Center
• Lindsay Shanley – Data Center
• Bharat Patel, PE, LEED AP, CEM – Data Center & Building Science
• Luciana Arim, LEED Green Assoc. – Workplace & Science

“This exceptional group join HED’s team of national leaders who are sector / typology experts. Together, they steer our practice to deliver focused, integrated design solutions that respond to nationwide trends and challenges. It’s this team-oriented leadership that delivers on the ‘bigger picture’ of our client’s design needs.” says HED CEO Peter Devereaux, FAIA

This commitment to specialization and shared leadership is driven directly by the firm’s mission to Advance the World of clients and create positive impact within for our clients, communities and the world.

HED is proud to announce that it has joined JUST, a program of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). JUST serves as a tool to help organizations measure their progress on a range of indicators about social justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and sustainability. The firm is embracing this transparency tool as a way to communicate its intentions and commitments in these realms with the firm's 470-person team, its clients, its communities, and its industry peers.

HED's organizational mission is to create positive impact for its clients, the community, and the world. The firm seeks to achieve these goals through maintaining a company culture that supports happy, healthy, engaged people, and one that fosters social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. "The JUST program felt like a perfect lens for the measurement of these core organizational goals," says Petrina Gooch, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Assoc. AIA. Gooch is a Principal with HED, the firm's Corporate Human Resources Leader, and a member of HED's Board of Directors.

The JUST label gives firms a "grade" on a number of indicators -- such as gender and ethnic diversity, pay equity, and others -- and the grades are made publicly available by ILFI. The overall label offers an annual snapshot of the firm's progress on a number of measures.

According to Gooch, "JUST is a valuable tool that helps us measure and transparently share -- with our team and the world -- how we are doing on key measures that at the core, impact the reality of social justice for every worker," she says. For example, HED excels in the Worker Benefit category: HED scores three of three possible stars in two topics in that category: Worker Happiness and Continuing Education.

Tania Van Herle, AIA, is a Principal with HED and serves as the Corporate Systems Leader. "JUST creates a way for us to have meaningful, transparent dialogue about the impact of social justice in our workplaces and in our world," she says. "We expect the dialogue to advance our own contribution to these critical topics in the communities we serve. We welcome the opportunity to help other companies in this journey to make improvements along with us to better the whole."

Gooch adds that she is encouraged by this step because "it is helping us demonstrate that our policies and efforts on these fronts are not just talk or short-lived optics that will quickly vanish," she says. "We are actively engaged in continuous improvement of this growing organization, which is something we want our people and our community to see and experience as they work with us."


ABOUT JUST
JUST is a "nutrition" transparency label and voluntary disclosure tool for socially just and equitable organizations. JUST is not a certification program, it is a transparency platform for organizations to disclose their operations, including how they treat their employees and where they make financial and community investments. Organizations can use the label on their website or marketing to demonstrate their commitments to these issues. The International Living Future Institute also transparently posts the detailed information in the publicly viewable JUST database. This approach requires reporting on a range of organization- and employee-related indicators. Each of the indicator metrics asks for simple yet specific and measurable accountabilities in order for the organization to be recognized at a One, Two, or Three Star Level, which is then summarized elegantly on a label.

HED President Michael Cooper, PE has been elected to serve as a Vice Chair of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Executive Committee.

A federation of 52 state and regional groups, ACEC is made up of more than 5,600 engineering firm and affiliate members, employing over 600,000 engineers, surveyors, architects, and specialists. The organization advocates locally and nationally to grow business opportunities, reduce risk for engineering firms, and to promote awareness of the value of solid engineering design by qualified experts. They encourage collaboration between practitioners and regions to build networks of colleagues for knowledge exchange, sharing of best practices, and business development. The council also creates and manages programming to educate firms to promote sound business leadership and management excellence and continually celebrates design excellence in the built environment by engineering firms whose projects promote societal and economic benefits and sustained quality of life.

"As an organization, ACEC fosters a business environment that promotes safe, impactful and sustainable design solutions. I believe in this mission personally and believe that our member firms will create a better world for all of us. I have been a part of the ACEC/Michigan leadership team for more than a decade, and am thrilled for the opportunity to now serve the organization at the national level," says Cooper.

Joining Cooper on ACEC's Executive Board are several other new members with terms beginning at the 2020 Annual Convention and Legislative Summit in Washington, D.C., including:

• Robin Greenleaf, CEO of Architectural Engineers, Inc., in Boston, who will become the new chair-elect.
• Edmond Alizadeh, president of Geotechnology, Inc. in St. Louis, who will serve as a Vice Chair.
• Matthew Hirst, president/COO of CRS Consulting Engineers in Salt Lake City, Utah, who will serve as a Vice Chair.
• Gary Raba, president of Raba Kistner, Inc. in San Antonio, who will serve as a Vice Chair.
• Jim Smith, Executive Director of ACEC/North Carolina, who will serve as the NAECE representative to the 2020-2021 Executive Committee.

The new officers will join Charles Gozdziewski, Chairman Emeritus of Hardesty & Hannover in New York; John Carrato, President/CEO of Alfred Benesch & Company in Chicago; Keith London, President/CEO of Kennedy/Jenks Consultants in Murrieta, CA.; Kenny Smith, CEO of T. Baker Smith in Houma, LA; and ACEC President/CEO Linda Bauer Darr on the 2020-2021 Executive Committee.

It’s finally here! After six years serving as the Full Service Architect for Phase II (and the Interior Architect of Record on R1) the Greenland USA Metropolis is complete!

These mixed-use, high-rise condominiums and for-lease units have been a much anticipated addition to the Los Angeles skyline, and our team couldn’t be prouder of this achievement!”

The tallest 624’-9” tower, at one of the largest downtown Los Angeles mixed-use high-rise projects, “Metropolis” has finally received its TCO (Temporary Certificate of Occupancy) on December 6th and Substantial Completion on December 13th. HED started the design in December 2013 and it has taken the team a full 6 years to come to this far.

The 56-story luxury residential tower is composed of 685 luxury units with mixture of studios, one and two-bedrooms plus 3 bed-room penthouse units. This completes the entire phase II for the 1,200 unit residential, 62,000sf retail with 1,820 parking podium supporting one of the largest roof garden in downtown Los Angeles. HED will continue to support the client for future retail tenant improvements.

The project is the result of 70 largely LA office staffers plus early support from the Chicago and Detroit offices - making it a perfect example of HED's core values of integrated practice and multi-disciplinary collaboration.

You can read more about Metropolis in Urbanize LA below.

HED is pleased to share that we are starting the new year by recognizing the talented staff that Advance the World of our clients.

These promotions, as well as elevations of several employees to Associate Principal and Associate mark the close of a strong year for the firm. In 2019, HED added over 70 new staff and two new metro locations in Boston and Dallas through mergers with Puchlik Design Associates (PDA) and Integrated Design Group (ID Group), expanding the firm’s reach within all sectors.

“The promotion of these individuals reflects the continued growth of our firm, “says HED CEO Peter Devereaux, FAIA. “As we continue to evolve as an organization, increasing in both size and offerings, the responsibility of these individuals has grown to match, and has been integral to the success of our mission of Advancing the World of our clients and communities. Their commitment to building powerful client relationships, delivering innovative work, and creating positive impact has been, and continues to be, indispensable to our success as a firm.”


Principals
• Dennis Julian, PE, ATD, DCEP – Boston
• Marshall O’Keefe – Los Angeles

Associate Principals
• Joe Raia, AIA, LEED AP – Boston
• Jason Rostar, CM-BIM - Chicago
• Mark Karaba, RA, WELL AP, LEED AP – Detroit
• Kevin Shibata, RA – Los Angeles

Associates
• Melinda Conroy, PE – Boston
• Lindsey Burghgraef, NCIDQ, LEED AP, NCARB – Chicago
• Katherine Kalant, AIA – Chicago
• Bernard Vilza, RA – Chicago
• Megan Crawford, PE - Detroit
• Matt Majchrzak - Detroit
• Eric Mitchell, PE - Detroit
• Carl Williams - Detroit
• Eric Wingelaar, AIA, LEED AP – Detroit
• Catherine Araga, AIA, LEED AP BD+C – Los Angeles
• Niccolo Boldrin – Los Angeles
• Katherine Cong, RA, NCARB – Los Angeles
• Thomas Louie, RA – Los Angeles
• Kyungho (Sean) Oh, LEED Green Assoc. – Los Angeles
• Analisa Olson, LEED AP BD+C, NCIDQ – Los Angeles
• Gerard Palody, PE – Los Angeles
• Maryal Peter – Los Angeles
• Feng Wang, RA – Los Angeles
• Taeko Welty – Los Angeles
• Evan Henderson, RA, LEED AP BD+C, NCARB – San Diego
• Emily Perez, AIA, LEED AP, NCARB – San Diego
• Naveen Govind, LEED AP – San Francisco
• Erin Pleticha – San Francisco
• Clarissa Urquico, LEED Green Assoc. – San Francisco

We hope you will join us in celebrating these individuals who create positive impact in our firm and beyond.

As heard at NOW WHAT Chicago: "Advocacy, Activism, and Alliances in American Architecture" part 1 of 6 - a panel on Chicago's legacy of female and minority architects.

Featuring:
HED Principal Susan King, FAIA, LEED AP BD C
Professor and Author Kathryn Anthony
Smytha Vasan, President of The Illinois Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (I-NOMA)
and Veselka Ivanovic, President of Chicago Women in Architecture (CWA).

What is Your Plan for Planned Power Outages?

On Nov. 18, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) issued its 7th planned power outage notice this year. This outage affected more than 300,000 customers (almost 1,000,000 people) in PG&E’s Northern California service area.

While weather may calm as we head toward winter, we know there will be future outage events, which should drive facility teams to evaluate their preparation.

Our integrated architecture and engineering team at HED has been considering what these outages mean in the larger context of overall building operations and mission resiliency - you can read about some of our takeaways in National Engineering Leader Kenneth Golovko's recent article from Engineering News-Record: "What is Your Plan for Planned Power Outages?"

Some of these considerations include what types of questions facilities leadership should be asking, like:

- Is there any backup power available (generator, on-site solar etc.)?
- Have loads been added to the backup / emergency system versus design?
- Have emergency systems been maintained? e.g. Have the emergency batteries been tested and replaced?
- How much fuel is available for a generator?
- What other services will be affected? Water? Natural Gas? Sewer systems?
- Will your system need a black start generator to engage after a complete power loss?

Kenneth Golovko, P.E., LEED AP BD+C is the National Engineering Practice Leader at integrated architecture and engineering firm HED. A well-recognized, national leader in integrated design, with a particular focus on sustainability, Ken has over 25 years of experience in design and project leadership. If you'd like to continue the conversation about Planned Power Outages, you can reach out to Ken using the link below.